Citizens
For Legitimate Governmentis a multi-partisan
activist group established to expose the Bush
coup d'etat, and to oppose the Bush
occupation in all of its manifestations.

August
2004 Archives, Page Two

Faith-Based
Missile Defense
--posted by noahmax, August 18, 2004 (defensetech.org) "Early in
his administration, President [sic] Bush put a whole lot of stock in
'faith-based'
initiatives to solve domestic problems... The anti-missile system's
effectiveness is a matter of faith, not evidence. Because, in a rush
to ready the system before the election, the Defense Department scrapped
some of the $10 billion per year program's most important tests. And
the results the Pentagon does have are murky, at best."

Tenet
blasts proposal to strip CIA of powers --Radical idea comes
from Senate intelligence committee chairman --Former CIA Director George
Tenet on Monday attacked a Republican senator's proposal to reorganize
the CIA, calling it "a dangerous misunderstanding of the business of
intelligence."

Judge
Rejects One Bid for a Central Park Protest
--A federal judge in Manhattan refused yesterday to force the city to
allow a rally on Saturday on the Great Lawn in Central Park, after the
Bloomberg administration and protest organizers failed to reach a compromise
during a sudden round of weekend negotiations.

N.Y.
Touts Its Convention Security
--The pileup of events in the city next week, including the Repugnant
Nazi Carnival, will add to the security challenge for the New York
Police Department, but commissioner Ray Kelly says, "With a big, experienced
police force, we can do it."

Strong
Showing as Protesters Greet Bush in Traverse City (MI) --by
Gary Howe "Over a 1000 protesters lined the streets around the
Grand Traverse County Civic Center to voice their objection to the Bush
administration. Three demonstrators were arrested for crossing police
lines in 'sterile zones' where protests were supposedly not allowed."

E-Vote
Machines: Secret Testing
--The three companies that certify the nation's voting technologies
operate in secrecy and refuse to discuss flaws in the ATM-like machines
to be used by nearly one in three voters in November. Despite concerns
over whether the touch-screen machines can be trusted, the testing companies
won't say publicly if they have encountered shoddy workmanship. They
say they are committed to secrecy in their contracts with the voting
machines' makers -- even though tax money ultimately buys or leases
the machines.

New
Fla. Ballot Called Confusing
--Palm Beach County has introduced an absentee ballot that requires
voters to indicate their choices by connecting broken arrows,
sparking criticism that it is even more confusing than the infamous
"butterfly ballot" used in the 2000 election. Theresa LePore [LeGOPwhore],
the elections supervisor who approved the 2000 butterfly ballot, opted
for a ballot design for the Aug. 31 primary that asks voters to draw
lines joining two ends of an arrow.

A
Chill in Florida
--by Bob Herbert "...[T]he sending of state troopers into the homes
of elderly black voters in Orlando was said by officials to be a response
to allegations of voter fraud in last March's mayoral election. But
the investigation went forward despite findings in the spring that appeared
to show that the allegations were unfounded. Why go forward anyway?
Well, consider that the prolonged investigation dovetails exquisitely
with that crucial but unspoken mission of the G.O.P. in Florida: to
keep black voter turnout as low as possible."

Kerry
lashes out at Bush on war politics
--Democratic challenger John Kerry says George W. Bush is standing silent
just as he did four years ago when supporters waged a campaign of "lies"
to destroy the White House hopes of fellow Vietnam veteran and Sen.
John McCain.

They'd
Be More Truthful If They Called Themselves Swift Boat Veterans For Lies
--by Bill Gallagher "The attack ads on John Kerry's Vietnam War
record have George W. Bush's blessings, and the droppings of his political
brain, Karl 'King Rat' Rove, are
all over the TV spots and the campaign to discredit the Democratic candidate...
The Bushes seem to have a genetic predisposition to surround themselves
with despicable operatives who will do the dirty work to cover for their
failures and protect their political survival. The late Lee Atwater
and family fixer and valet James
A. Baker come quickly to mind." [a must read]

Ex-Worker
Sues RNC for Discrimination
--A former field director is accusing the Florida Republican Party of
racial discrimination in a federal lawsuit. Nadia Naffe also named the
Republican National Committee and Bush-Cheney '04 in the lawsuit, which
was filed Monday in Tampa.

Celebs
Aiding Anti-Bush Web Campaign
--The Internet political group MoveOn.org on Tuesday premieres 10 new
anti-Bush ads created by award-winning directors and starring popular
Hollywood actors.

Unions
Protest New Overtime Rules --Several hundred union members marched
outside the Labor Department to protest new overtime pay regulations
taking effect today, with two senators pledging to try to roll them
back when Congress returns from recess... "The fight is not over yet,"
said Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, an opponent of the
changes who is facing a tough re-election bid in November.

Judge
orders prison probe report stay secret (AZ) A judge on Monday
refused to publicly release a grand jury's report on its investigation
of the two-week hostage situation at a prison in Buckeye. Presiding
Judge Colin Campbell ruled after reviewing transcripts of the grand
jury investigation conducted by Special Prosecutor A. Melvin McDonald
Jr. at the request of Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and Republican
legislative leaders.

"I
am not taking sides." --Secretary
of State James Baker offering an apparent rationalization for Iraq's
use of chemical weapons against Kuwait. [Click here
for must-read citations from Conspiracies, Cover-ups and Crimes:
From JFK to the CIA Terrorist Connection by Jonathan Vankin, published
in 1992.]

Blair
refuses to travel to US --British Prime Minister Tony Blair
is refusing to fly to the United States to receive a medal bestowed
on him by the nation for his support over last year's Iraq war, a London
newspaper reported today. US Dictator George W. Bush has put huge pressure
on his closest ally to pick up the Congressional Medal of Honour in
person, the Sunday Mirror said, quoting a senior British government
source.

Al-Sadr
assists with US journalist's release
--US journalist Micah Garen, who was kidnapped in Iraq more than a week
ago, was released today in the southern city of Nasiriyah. Muqtada Al-Sadr's
representatives condemned the kidnapping, and al-Sadr aide Sheik Awas
al-Khafaji had been working in recent days to get Garen released.

Fighting
Erupts Round Rebel-Held Najaf Shrine --Fierce fighting broke
out around a shrine in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf Monday, and pieces
of shrapnel landed in the courtyard of the mosque held by followers
of a Shi'ite leader, Reuters witnesses said. Militiamen loyal to leader
Moqtada al-Sadr remained in control of the mosque and U.S. tanks had
pulled back from positions they held Sunday as close as 800 meters (yards)
from the compound, he said.

US
tanks close in on Najaf mosque rebels
--US military tanks yesterday advanced within 800 metres of the Imam
Ali mosque in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf, where Shiite militiaman
remained in control of the compound, a witness said. Earlier yesterday,
US aircraft staged a fresh assault on the rebels after talks on surrendering
control of the mosque at the centre of an 18-day siege ran into trouble.

Five
US soldiers killed in 24 hours --Five US soldiers have been
killed in Iraq and another wounded following a series of attacks in
the last 24 hours. The military issued a statement on Sunday confirming
that the last of the five fatalities occurred in the northern city of
Mosul when a roadside bomb exploded at around 12:45 GMT.

Mother
of Dead UK Soldier to Sue Government -Report
--The mother of a young British soldier killed in Iraq plans to sue
the government for breaching its duty of care to her son by not supplying
key defensive equipment, the Guardian newspaper reported on Monday.

Anti-Bush
squaddie gasses himself
--Peter Mahoney had never believed in the war and had been a vocal critic
within his local community of the British government's decision to invade
Iraq. He had publicly accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of being Dictator
George Bush's "puppet". Like many who opposed the invasion, he thought
weapons of mass destruction were a smokescreen. The real issue, he
contested, was seizing Saddam Hussein's oilfields...

Blackwater
violated own rules in workers' deaths in Iraq --Company contract
called for six guards in convoy --A security company, based in North
Carolina, violated its own safety rules in March when it sent four men
with a food convoy into Fallujah, Iraq, where they were ambushed and
mutilated, the Raleigh News & Observer reported yesterday.

U.S.
Prepares for Guantanamo Arraignments --Four Guantanamo prisoners
will be the first suspected 'terrorists' arraigned in preliminary hearings
this week before their cases go to military commissions, or trials,
in an unprecedented judicial process that foreign governments,
lawyers and human rights groups have criticized.

Army
prison abuse cases linked--Abu
Ghraib interrogators involved in earlier Afghanistan probe
--Army investigators believe that some of the military interrogators
who were implicated in the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq were involved in earlier deaths and abuses of detainees held by
U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Yet even as investigators were uncovering
troubling evidence of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, orders were cut
to transfer the military intelligence company involved to Iraq and to
Abu Ghraib.

Hippocratic
oath a casualty of war --Prisoners are patients too, but in
Iraq that principle was ignored by some doctors, writes Michael Cook.
"Why didn't the doctors at Abu Ghraib prison protect their patients?
It is becoming clear that it was not just trailer
trash who were corrupted by their power over Iraqi detainees
in the prison. That power also poisoned the people who should be the
bulwark of humanitarianism: the medical staff... Unhappily, doctors
appear to be an integral part of the US military's brutal interrogation
techniques. According to The Lancet, army officials have stated that
a physician and a psychiatrist helped design, approve and monitor interrogations
at Abu Ghraib."

Man
accused of running private Afghan jail had U.S. letter
--A former Green Beret from Fayetteville who is accused of running an
illegal jail in Afghanistan got into that county in 2001 after a U.S.
official said he was a government contractor, a newspaper reported
Sunday. Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema got into Afghanistan after an official
at the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan wrote a letter identifying him as
a contractor with the Department of Defense, The Fayetteville Observer
reported.

Embassy
letter opened doors for Idema
--Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema got into Afghanistan in 2001 after an
official at the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan wrote a letter identifying
him as a contractor with the Department of Defense. Idema, Ed
Caraballo of New York and Brent Bennett of Fayetteville are accused
of kidnapping and torturing Afghan citizens in their makeshift jail.
They could face 15 to 20 years in an Afghan prison. Idema, a former
Green Beret from Fayetteville, has said he tortured no one. He maintains
he was only trying to elicit information from suspected terrorists using
methods he learned in the Special Forces.

Oil
prices 'will fall to $30'
--The chief economist of the World Bank predicted in an interview published
yesterday that oil prices would return in a matter of months to a stable
level around $30 a barrel after hitting record highs this week of nearly
$50.

Venezuelan
Vote Audit Confirms Chavez Win
--An audit of Venezuela's recall referendum has confirmed that President
Hugo Chavez won fairly and found no evidence to support fraud charges,
observers and electoral council officials said on Saturday.

North
Korea likens Bush to Hitler --North Korea has [accurately]
described US Dictator George W Bush as an "imbecile"
and a "tyrant that puts Hitler in the shade".
A Foreign Ministry spokesman was responding to comments Dictator Bush
made last week in which he described the North's Kim Jong-il as a "tyrant".

National
ID seen in 9/11 panel plan
--The September 11 commission's recommendation for federal standards
of identification documents such as driver's licenses and birth certificates
is tantamount to the introduction of a national ID card system "through
the back door," some lawmakers believe.

A
G.O.P. Senator Proposes a Plan to Split Up C.I.A.
--The Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee said
Sunday that he would propose legislation to break up the Central Intelligence
Agency and divide its responsibilities among three new spy agencies.

It's
a Nice Place to Visit, but He Can't Stay
--George Bush may not spend a single night in New York City. At this
point, the unofficial plan is for him to arrive in Manhattan sometime
on Thursday, Sept. 2, the final day of the four-day convention, deliver
his acceptance speech that night, then leave immediately for Pennsylvania.

14
WTC search and rescue dogs dead --Fourteen search and rescue
dogs have died since their exposure to toxic rubble from the
Sept. 11 terrorist attack - including eight from cancer, according to
a study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

'Fahrenheit
9/11' opens in Japan
--Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, opened this weekend in 160 cinemas
in Japan where many stood in long lines to see the movie. Fahrenheit
9/11 has made more than $115 million in ticket sales since opening in
the United States in June.

Electronic
Civil Disobedience Against the RNC
(Hack
the RNC!) "Distribute Widely - All Hackers Out to Disrupt the
RNC - BATTLE LOGISTICS ENCLOSED --Hackers are organizing for a massive
electronic civil disobedience campaign against the Republican party
to coincide with the massive protests in New York City for the Republican
National Convention [Repugnant Nazi Carnival].
This document contains logistical information on how people can participate
in this campaign." [CLG does not promote or encourage illegal
acts by anyone.]

ProtestWarrior
has been HACKED
(nyc.indymedia.org) "ProtestWarrior has been hacked today as part
of an electronic civil disobedience campaign against Republican and
pro-'American' websites. The following text was placed on the ProtestWarrior
website. The website was promptly removed. Also note that the contact
information / passwords of the head ProtestWarriors are listed below.
At the bottom of this message is a complete email list of everyone registered
as a ProtestWarrior member. Please utilize the following information.
This action was part of a larger hacktivist campaign against the Republican
National Convention [Repugnant Nazi Carnival].
Participate in the online sit-in at http://phil.ist-backup.de/rncelectronic/
-- Modern day Nazis pledging their obedience to the State and the platform
of state-sponsored terrorism - neo-fascist ProtestWarriors, you have
been HACKED by your friendly neighborhood hacker anarchist."[CLG
does not promote or encourage illegal acts by anyone.]

Edwards
Hits Bush on Overtime Pay Rules
--John Edwards chose the almost evenly divided state of Wisconsin to
tout the Democratic presidential ticket's economic plans and criticize
the Bush regime's new rules for overtime pay. "Today, millions
of workers will find out that instead of getting time-and-a-half, they're
going to get a hard time from their government,'' the vice presidential
nominee said in prepared remarks as the rules took effect Monday. "More
than 60 years of protecting overtime work have been wiped out with the
stroke of this presiden[sic]t's pen.''

Controversial
Overtime Rules Take Effect
--The Bush dictatorship's new overtime rules go into effect today, but
the Kerry campaign has already begun attacking the overhauled regulations,
saying they will hurt millions of American workers.

Pinochet
had more US bank accounts: report --Former Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet held at least five more secret bank accounts in the
United States, in addition to the eight already discovered at Riggs
Bank in Washington.

Mad
cow disease added to alert list
--Fears about the inadvertent spread of the human form of mad cow disease
through the blood supply, transplantation or contaminated surgical instruments
has prompted Australian health departments to make Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (CJD) and its beef-related variant, vCJD, notifiable diseases
for the first time. Smallpox, despite its absence since 1979, and a
rare but potentially fatal bacterial infection called tularaemia are
now also notifiable because of their potential use [by Bush]
in a bioterrorism attack.

*****

Bear
Rejects Busch!(WA)
A Bear in the woods refused to be Bush-whacked, drinking an off-brand
beer over Busch beer. When state Fish and Wildlife agents recently
found a black bear passed out on the lawn of Baker Lake Resort, there
were some clues scattered nearby dozens of empty cans of Rainier Beer.
The bear apparently got into campers' coolers and used his claws and
teeth to puncture the cans. "He drank the Rainier
and wouldn't drink the Busch beer," said Lisa Broxson, bookkeeper
at the campground and cabins resort east of Mount Baker. Fish and Wildlife
enforcement Sgt. Bill Heinck said the bear did try one can of Busch,
but ignored the rest. "He didn't like that (Busch) and consumed,
as near as we can tell, about 36 cans of Rainier." [He's
smarter than the average bear!]

Truthout,
steal this story!Journalist
killed in Fallujah
--An Iraqi freelance journalist working for Germany's ZDF television
has been killed in the flashpoint city of Fallujah, the network said
today. Mahmud Hamid Abbas, 32, had gone to the city on Sunday to film
when he was killed "in unexplained circumstances",
it said. The media watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) said the
journalist was killed as he was leaving his native Fallujah for Baghdad.
"When he phoned the ZDF office in Baghdad to say he was coming he mentioned
he had just filmed a house destroyed by US warplanes,"
RSF said, quoting ZDF's Iraq correspondent. "About 25 minutes later,
he rang again to say he had seen a second attack. During the call, he
suddenly said he and others with him were being fired at.

*****

2004
RNC Delegates
(rncdelegates.com) "...[T]oday we are releasing a list of delegates
to the 2004 Republican National Convention [Repugnant
Nazi Carnival]. This list includes the names, address, phone
numbers, and e-mail addresses of RNC delegates in addition to what hotel
each one is staying at during their invasion of New York City. It is
not a complete list, but does include information on over 1600 delegates
gathered from a variety of sources."

Bush
is 'exploiting 9/11 for re-[sic]election'
--New Yorkers braced for violent protests aimed at Republican party
convention next weekend --The invasion of the Big Apple is coming,
and its residents could not be less delighted. Why us, is the cry of
many New Yorkers who are dreading the confab of Republicans that starts
on 30 August. The Republicans settled on New York soon after the 9/11
attacks on the World Trade Centre. Coming to town in 2004 would be the
perfect gesture, they thought, but Democrats see it differently. They
say that Bush is trying to exploit the tragedy
of 2001 and use the backdrop of a maimed Manhattan to cast
himself as the tough leader who can crush terrorism.

Exposed:
scandal of double voters
--With debate over the 2000 election still raging, thousands of people
illegally register in both New York City and Florida, which could swing
an election. Some 46,000 New Yorkers are registered to vote in both
the city and Florida, a shocking finding that exposes both states to
potential abuses that could alter the outcome of elections, a Daily
News investigation shows... Edwin Peterson, 66, a registered Democrat
in Palm Coast, Fla., and St. Albans, Queens, attributed his dual vote
in the 2000 election to his distrust of the party running the Sunshine
State. "That was a situation where Florida is so messed up with the
Republicans, you don't know if your vote is even going to be counted,"
Peterson said. "It's been like that forever."

Iraqi
Desertion Rate Exceeds 80% --Iraq's security forces, ordered
to prepare for an offensive against the Mahdi Army in Najaf, have been
plagued by a desertion rate that exceeded 80 percent. A U.S. report
warned that Iraqi Interior Ministry troops remain unprepared to fight
Shi'ite or Sunni insurgents and could not be deemed reliable.

Najaf
erupts as US death toll tops 600 --Fresh fighting broke out
last night in the Shia holy city of Najaf as the US military announced
the deaths of three more of its servicemen, bringing to more than 600
the number killed in Iraq since Dictator George Bush declared major
hostilities over. A Polish serviceman also died.

Two
French journalists missing in Iraq
--Two French journalists are missing in Iraq and have not been heard
from since Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in Paris says. George Malbrunot
of Le Figaro and Christian Chesnot of Radio France International, who
often worked together and published a book on Iraq last year, have not
reported on their location for more than two days, the ministry said.

US
affirms 10 Guantanamo detainees as "enemy combatants"
--The US military has concluded that 10 detainees held at the US naval
base prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were properly classified as "enemy
combatants" and should not be set free, media reports said Saturday.
Earlier this month, the US military classified that four detainees held
at Guantanamo as legitimate "enemy combatants" and decided that they
would continue to be jailed, after a review process that started late
July.

UN
rights expert berates US on Afghan detentions --A UN human rights
expert on Saturday slammed US military authorities in Afghanistan for
barring him from visiting detention centres and pronounced a Kabul prison
"inhuman." Cherif Bassiouni said:"The lack of giving
an opportunity for people to go and see these facilities is a lack
of transparency that raises serious concerns about the legality
of detention...and conditions of those detainees."

Remote-Control
Explosions Pose Threat in Afghanistan --Twelve election workers
have been killed in explosions over the last few months as they have
registered voters nationwide. Thirty-one American soldiers have been
killed - 23 of them in combat - this year, most of them in roadside
explosions or ambushes, a sharp increase over the same period last year.

U.S.
planning space weapons, Russian envoy says
--Canadian politicians are badly mistaken if they believe Washington's
plans to defend North America from ballistic missiles will not inevitably
lead to weapons in space, Russia's ambassador in Ottawa says. Georgiy
Mamedov, who was Moscow's chief arms-control negotiator before his posting
to Canada last year, said he has received briefings by Pentagon officials
that make it clear the current ballistic missile-defence program ultimately
involves space weapons.

Japan
to join US in arms production
--Japan might relax a decades-old ban on arms exports so it can make
weapons jointly with its main security ally, the United States, a Japanese
newspaper said on Saturday.

U.S.
Opens 1st Northern Border Air Patrol Station
--The U.S. government is stepping up efforts to patrol its porous northern
border with Canada by using helicopters, airplanes and boats to 'monitor
illegal immigration and drug traffic,' officials said on Friday. The
first of five planned facilities, the Air and Marine Branch, has begun
operations 80 miles north of Seattle, with the aim of "maximizing" security
with Canada, a country known for its friendly ties with the United States.
[The patrol is to stop people from leaving the US after the Bush
dictatorship's next attack.]

Ashcroft
defends interviews with protesters
--Attorney General John Ashcroft defended recent FBI interviews of political
activists across the country Friday, saying federal agents questioned
only protesters the government believed were plotting to firebomb media
vehicles [Rove freelancers?] at the Democratic National Convention in
Boston last month or might have known [?!?] about such plots. Political
activists and civil rights advocates scoffed at Ashcroft's explanation,
calling his defense of the interviews part of a government campaign
to intimidate protesters.

Indians
languishing in US detention center --More than 200 immigrants,
including Indians, arrested in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks in the US, are languishing in Wackenhut Detention
Center in New York City without being charged
and without access to lawyers.

200
locked away & under the radar--by
Albor Ruiz "There is a little gulag in
New York City... Its name is the Wackenhut Detention Center,
and more than 200 human beings - men and women - languish ignored within
its walls. Yet most New Yorkers have never heard about it... [T]he government
refuses to release information about their [the detainees] status or
what their future might be - even though few, if any, of the immigrant
detentions since 9/11 have yielded any useful results for President
[sic] Bush's 'war on [of] terror.'
Shameful as it is, the misfortune of these immigrants and their families
is just one more opportunity for big profits for Wackenhut, the private
corporation running the jail under contract with the federal government."

Graphic
Designer Fired After Heckling Bush
--A man who heckled Dictator Bush at a political rally was fired from
his job at an advertising and design company for offending a client
who provided tickets to the event.

Feb.
28, 1969: On the Dong Cung River --Anti-Kerry
vets not there that day --by William B. Rood "There
were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35
years ago—three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers
remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969. One is John
Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a Silver Star for
what happened on that date. I am the other. For years, no one asked
about those events."

Volunteer
links anti-Kerry flier to GOP
--A volunteer for John Kerry said Friday he picked up a flier in a Bush-Cheney
campaign office in Gainesville, Fla., promoting Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth, a group the Bush campaign has insisted for weeks it has
no connection to. The Kerry campaign e-mailed the flier to news
organizations Friday, declaring that the Bush-Cheney campaign was "busted"
for coordinating "in their smear campaign against John Kerry."

Bush
Campaign Drops Swift Boat Ad Figure
--Democrat's Team Says Veteran's Role in Drive to Discredit Kerry
Shows a Link --The Bush campaign said late Saturday that it dismissed
an adviser on veterans issues after learning that he is part of an independent
group that has been running anti-Kerry ads. The Bush campaign said Kenneth
Cordier, who appears in a new advertisement to be aired by the anti-Kerry
group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, will no longer serve in his voluntary
position on Bush's veterans steering committee.

Former
POW Resigns From Bush Campaign
--A former POW resigned as a volunteer to Dictator Bush's re-selection
campaign Saturday after it was learned that he appeared in an anti-John
Kerry ad sponsored by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth [sic]. Retired
Air Force Col. Ken Cordier, resigned as a member of the Bush campaign's
veterans' steering committee after it was learned that he appeared with
other former POWs in a 30-second ad, produced by the Swift Boat group,
criticizing Kerry's congressional testimony.

Anti-Kerry
ads have GOP links --Longtime Texas supporters of Dictator Bush
have fueled a campaign to discredit John Kerry's war record. Kerry called
them ''a front for the Bush campaign.'' A series of interviews
and a review of documents show a web of connections to the Bush family,
high-profile Texas political figures and Dictator Bush's chief political
aide, Karl Rove...

Edwards
Assails Veterans Group Ad as Lies
--John Edwards demanded Saturday that Dictator Bush call for television
ads attacking John F. Kerry's military service in Vietnam to be pulled
because they are lies funded by Bush allies. "This is a moment of truth
for George W. Bush," the North Carolina senator told a cheering crowd
at a magnet school here, where his campaign stopped for a morning town
hall meeting. "We're going to see what kind of man he is and what kind
of leader he is. . . . We want to hear from the president of the United
States. We don't want to hear rhetoric. We want to hear three words:
'Stop these ads!' "

Vietnam
Vets in Hanoi Back Kerry with T-Shirts --With the U.S. presidential
race taking a decidedly bitter turn over John Kerry's Vietnam war record,
U.S. veterans in Hanoi are selling T-shirts supporting his run for the
White House.

Kerry
Raises $2M for Democrats in N.Y. EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. - John Kerry
raised $2 million for Democrats in just a few hours Saturday, making
two stops in this understated and elegant vacation destination for the
Northeastern well-to-do.

Edwards
Faults Bush for Overtime Pay Cuts --Vice presidential candidate
John Edwards on Saturday assailed a new Bush regime policy that excludes
millions of Americans from overtime pay and promised that the Democratic
ticket would ensure that workers are rewarded for their efforts.

Insurers
Object to New Provision in Medicare Law
--A major obstacle to the success of the new Medicare law has emerged
in recent weeks: private insurers have told the Bush regime that they
will not expand their role in Medicare if they have to serve large multistate
regions, as the White House 'wants.' Congress sharply
increased payments to private health plans last year in the
'hope' that they would serve many more Medicare beneficiaries.

Whole
of UK on flood alert as storms surge in from Atlantic
--A week of extreme weather could end with more flooding caused by violent
and unpredictable storms surging across the Atlantic this weekend. The
Met Office said almost the whole of the UK was at risk of flooding in
the next few days because of saturation of the ground.

American
Salmon, a cancer causing time bomb?
--American farm raised salmon are showing high levels of industrial-strength
fire retardants in their fat tissue. This comes just after the explosive
discovery of high levels of mercury that was also found in salmon. In
addition, high levels of PCBs and PBDEs are also being found in salmon.

*****

Najaf
Standoff Continues; 90 Killed, 70 Hurt In Iraq Battles
--The standoff in the key city of Najaf continued on Saturday with Shia
leader Moqtada Sadr gunmen still controlling streets around the great
shrine after 16 days of fighting with US-led forces. In the continuing
violence, two US soldiers among 90 killed and 70 other injured in the
past 24 hours in Najaf, where US forces pounded Shia militia bastions
overnight, the health ministry said.

Blasts
heard in Najaf
--Around four loud explosions echoed across Najaf early on Saturday,
though their cause was not immediately clear, Reuters witnesses reported.
The explosions followed a relatively quiet night in Najaf, the southern
city where a radical Shi'ite uprising has raged for more than two weeks.

'Death
after death, blood after blood'--Killing
goes on despite claims that siege is over --Luke Harding inside
the Imam Ali shrine, Najaf, August 21, 2004 --"Inside the pockmarked
entrance of Najaf's Imam Ali shrine, there were no police to be seen
yesterday afternoon. Supporters of the rebel Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
loafed on carpets in the pigeon-infested courtyard. A few smoked; others
dozed. A couple of young students stood next to a makeshift infirmary;
parked nearby was an empty pallet covered in blood. 'We haven't given
up. This is a lie by the government,' said Amar Al-Khaji, a 29-year-old
civil engineer from Baghdad. 'As you can see, we are still here.'"

Civilians
killed in Falluja air strike
--A US bombing raid on the Iraqi town of Falluja has left five people
dead and wounded six, while two US marines have been killed in Anbar
province. A journalist from Falluja, Abu Bakr al-Dulaimi, told Aljazeera
on Friday that four Iraqi women were among the wounded when US
warplanes bombed a milk factory in the town west of Baghdad
in an overnight raid.

37
captured Iraqis summarily executed: sources (Tehran Times) Thirty-seven
civilians and militiamen loyal to rebel Shia leader Moqtada Sadr were
summarily executed last Monday in camps established by U.S. army intelligence
units on the outskirts of Najaf, informed sources in Najaf have said.
The sources also reported that the U.S. occupation forces tortured the
captives before summarily executing them.

Dozens
Protest Iraq War Outside Downing Street
--Dozens of protesters gathered outside Downing Street tonight to demand
an end to fighting in Najaf and the withdrawal of coalition troops from
Iraq. Dozens of members of Stop the War Coalition, the Muslim Association
of Britain and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament gathered to wave
banners and chant, "George Bush out of Najaf".

Indonesians
protest US military action in Najaf --About 100 Indonesian Islamic
activists Friday protested US military attacks on the Iraqi holy city
of Najaf by burning the American flag and a dollar bill outside the
country's embassy.

Oil
Prices Back Off $50-A-Barrel Mark
--Oil prices made an about face Friday, falling below $48 a barrel,
as tensions between U.S. forces and rebel fighters in Iraq eased, raising
hopes that attacks against the country's oil infrastructure would subside.

US
forces coming to oil-rich Gulf of Guinea— USAF Commander
(August 10, 2004) --The United States yesterday said it was deploying
forces to the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, off Nigeria’s coastline, because
the region’s vast oil and gas resources were of strategic economic importance
to America and the rest of the world. Commander of the US Air Forces
in Europe, General Robert Fogleson stated this during a visit to the
Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Jonah Wuyep at the Defence Headquarters.

US
general violated speech rules
--A United States army general who likened the war on terrorism to a
struggle with Satan in speeches to church groups violated Defence Department
rules on public speaking. The findings of the Pentagon's inspector-general's
investigation into Lieutenant-General William Boykin were referred to
acting Army Secretary Les Brownlea for 'corrective action', a
senior defence official said on Thursday.

Fraud
ruled out in Chavez's referendum victory
--The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela on Friday ruled
out any possibility of a fraud, as claimed by the opposition, in the
victory of President Hugo Chavez in the recall referendum held last
Sunday. A senior official of the CNE, Tibisay Lucena, said no irregularity
has been spotted in the auditing of 150 electoral centers, as confirmed
by the international observers. [Looks like Dictator Bush and his
oil corpora-terrorists will have to try Plan 'B,' another US taxpayer-funded
coup d'etat in Venezuela, as Bush
tried in April, 2002.]

U.S.
intelligence system in "crisis": David Kay --Former arms inspector
David Kay offered a bleak assessment of the state of U.S. intelligence,
saying that even naming a intelligence czar was not likely to fix the
problems unless other significant reforms are undertaken.

U.S.
starts new border security operations --The U.S. announced some
concrete steps to harden what is seen as a soft border between it and
Canada. The first of five bases to carry out that task was dedicated
by U.S. officials Friday.

NYC
Denies All Central Park Rally Permits
--The city's decision to deny a permit to protesters for a rally on
Central Park's Great Lawn on the weekend before the Republican National
Convention is about preserving the lawn, not
suppressing speech, lawyers for the city said in federal
court Friday. [LOL, if it wasn't so pathetic. Bush's 'Healthy Forests
Initiative' MURDERS
forests, lawns and the entire environment every day of the year!]

Kennedy
has company on airline watch list
--Sen. Edward Kennedy is not alone. A second prominent lawmaker said
Friday that he's been subjected to extra security at airports because
his name appears on a list designed to prevent terrorists from boarding
planes. Rep. John Lewis, D - Georgia,
a nine-term congressman famous for his civil rights work with the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr., has been stopped 35 to 40 times over
the past year, his office said. [Gee, if it were John Kerry, he'd
still be grounded. This no-fly list is a SCAM, and this proves it!!!
Only the POLITICAL opponents of Repugnant Pigs
are on the no-fly list. The Republicans should be made to WALK.
They are the most unpatriotic, nation-selling, Swiftboat lying PIGS
on EARTH.]

Hundreds
Report Watch-List Trials -- For more than a year and a half,
Rep. John Lewis has endured lengthy delays at the ticket counter, intense
questioning by airline employees and suspicious glances by fellow passengers.
Airport security guards have combed through his luggage as he stood
in front of his constituents at the Atlanta airport. An airline employee
has paged him on board a flight for further questioning, he said. On
at least 35 occasions, the Georgia Democrat said, he was treated
like a criminal because his name, like that of Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy (D-Mass.), appeared on a government
terrorist watch list. Rep.
Lewis said that he filled out the form and received a letter from TSA
that verifies his identity but that he doesn't want to use it. "I'm
not sure why I would have to go around carrying something like a pass,"
said the congressman, who is known for his civil rights record. "It
reminds me of South Africa."

Jeb
Bush Declares 'Elections Emergency' in Florida
-- National Guard members who vote in the 10 Florida counties ravaged
by Hurricane Charley will be able to cast their ballots by fax machine
under an "elections emergency"
declared Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush's order said that although
no county reported damage to voting systems or ballots, the counties
are "still in the process of assessing the availability of poll
workers and the damage to any equipment and polling places for the conduct
of the state primary on Aug. 31." His
order also allows the suspension of early voting in the 10 affected
counties.

Lawyers
for Fla. congressman argue for paper ballots
--Lawyers for a Florida congressman argued Friday to keep alive a push
to require the state's voting machines to create a paper ballot to go
with each vote. Attorneys for U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat, told
members of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a district judge
wrongly threw out Wexler's lawsuit.

Florida
Republican Party Subject of Discrimination Lawsuit
--Civil Rights Attorneys to File Complaint in Federal Court Alleging
Discrimination, Retaliation Against African-American GOP Worker
(U.S. Newswire) "At a National Press Club news conference on Monday,
employment discrimination attorneys Cyrus Mehri and Sam Smith will announce
the filing of a federal employment discrimination lawsuit on behalf
of an African-American former state party employee against the Republican
Party of Florida, the Republican National Committee and Bush-Cheney
'04."

T-shirt
tolerance: Bush loses test --The question: Which presidential
campaign better tolerates dissent? The experiment: A man wears a Kerry-Edwards
shirt to a rally for Dictator Bush, then a Bush for President shirt
to a Kerry rally. Result: Bush people make him remove his shirt, and
give him the boot. The Kerry people don’t make a peep. It turns out
the Bush-Cheney campaign acts pre-emptively against what it regards
as suspicious [?!?] attendees.

Bush
Religion Adviser Quits Campaign Post--Sexual
Harassment Allegations Surface -- Deal W. Hudson, publisher of the
conservative Catholic magazine Crisis and a close ally of the Bush White
House, has resigned as an adviser to the Bush-Cheney reselection
campaign because of allegations that he sexually harassed a Fordham
University student a decade ago.

Iraqi
Olympians denounce 'criminal' Bush
--Members of the Iraqi Olympic soccer team branded US Dictator George
Bush a "criminal" and
called for American troops to pull out of the war-torn country. Speaking
after winning their group stage at the Games in Greece, one player said
he would take up arms against US troops in his country.

USOC
questions Bush Olympics ad --Dictator Bush's re-s-election
campaign will continue to run a television ad that mentions the Olympics,
despite questions about whether that violates
the bylaws for the games. U.S. Olympic Committee officials
have contacted the campaign about the ad and are awaiting a reply, USOC
spokesman Darryl Seibel said Friday in Athens. Campaign spokesman Scott
Stanzel said Friday there are no plans to pull the ad.

Kerry
says Bush broke the law in TV ad dispute
Sen. John Kerry has filed a complaint with federal officials, accusing
George W. Bush’s re-selection campaign
of breaking the law. Kerry’s complaint to the Federal Elections Commission
about the ads produced and aired by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
[sic] alleges "overwhelming evidence" that the veterans group
is "coordinating its expenditures on advertising and other activities
designed to influence the presidential election with the Bush-Cheney
Campaign," Kerry spokeswoman Allison Dobson told NBC News.

Kerry
Calls Ad Group a 'Front for the Bush Campaign'
--Escalating the debate over attacks on his military record by a Republican-financed
group of Vietnam veterans, Senator John Kerry on Thursday called the
group "a front for the Bush campaign." "The fact that the president
[sic] won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything that you
need to know-he wants them to do his dirty work," Mr. Kerry said at
a firefighters' convention in Boston.

Friendly
Fire: The Birth of an Anti-Kerry Ad
--A series of interviews and a review of documents show a web of connections
of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth [sic] to the Bush family, high-profile
Texas political figures and Dictator Bush's chief political aide, Karl
Rove. Records show that the group received the bulk of its initial financing
from two men with ties to George W. Bush and his family - one a longtime
political associate of Mr. Rove's, the other a trustee of the foundation
for Mr. Bush's father's presidential library. On close examination,
the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth [sic] prove to be riddled
with inconsistencies.

Frozen
Custard Costs George W. Bush $14,000
--Fourteen thousand dollars is a lot of money, especially if it's for
a frozen custard cone. That's how much it cost the City of Oshkosh to
protect Dictator Bush when he campaigned in Northeast Wisconsin last
month. On the way from Fond du Lac to Ashwaubenon, Bush and his daughter,
Barbara, stopped at Leon's Frozen Custard for what appeared as an impulse
visit (actually, the custard stand was scoped out by Secret Service
agents just 20 minutes earlier). Tonight a bill is in the mail to the
Bush-Cheney campaign.

Evidence
of Cipel Alleged Extortion Demand
--Golan Cipel's alleged extortion demand for millions of dollars from
New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey was backed up by a threat to release
embarrassing tapes and photos of him, The Post has learned.

Second
Explosion Rocks Texas Gas Facility --A second explosion in less
than 24 hours rocked a burning underground gas storage facility early
Friday, prompting authorities to expand an evacuation zone around the
site. The fire at Duke Energy's Moss Bluff natural gas facility intensified
overnight, an official said. The second explosion was reported at 1:15
a.m. and was seen as far as 20 miles away, witnesses said.

Terrorism
Ruled out in Siberian Ebola Case
--A special commission from Russia’s Health Ministry, investigating
a deadly Ebola case in Siberia, has confirmed that that the death of
an expert was the result of an accident, and ruled out terrorism or
foul play, the Interfax news agency reported. An expert at the
Vector Virology and Biotechnology institute in Novosibirsk pricked her
finger with a needle on May 5 while injecting guinea-pigs with the
Ebola virus — possibly the most feared disease in the world.

'Kerry'
crushes 'Bush' in cockroach derby --"John
Kerry" crushed "George Bush" like a bug at the annual cockroach
derby in New Brunswick, N.J. Thursday's event was hosted by the New
Jersey Pest Management Association. Organizers say the event has an
80 percent accuracy rate in determining the winners of the election.
...The "Kerry" roach sprinted down a 6- foot tube while the
"Bush" roach never moved any of its six legs. [We cannot let
the real cockroaches in Florida --Jeb Bush and Theresa LeGOPWhore
-- control the actual election.]

*****

Senators
Ask Where $8.8 Bln in Iraq Funds Went --At least $8.8
billion in Iraqi funds that was given to Iraqi ministries
by the former U.S.-led authority there cannot be accounted for, according
to a draft U.S. audit set for release soon.

Doctors
a Part of Iraq Abuse
--Doctors working for the U.S. military in Iraq collaborated with
interrogators in the abuse of detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison,
profoundly breaching medical ethics and human rights, a bioethicist
charges in The Lancet medical journal. In a scathing analysis of the
behavior of military doctors, nurses and medics, University of Minnesota
professor Steven Miles calls for a reform of military medicine and an
official investigation into the role played by physicians and other
medical staff in the torture scandal. He cites evidence that doctors
or medics falsified death certificates to cover up homicides, hid evidence
of beatings and revived a prisoner so he could
be further tortured. No reports of abuses were initiated
by medical personnel until the official investigation into Abu Ghraib
began, he found.

Abu
Ghraib Probe Points to Top Brass
--An Army investigation into the role of military intelligence personnel
in the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison reports that the scandal was not
just caused by a small circle of rogue military police soldiers but
resulted from failures of leadership rising
to the highest levels of the U.S. command in Iraq, senior
defense officials said.

'Rebels'
attack Iraq oil compound --Insurgents have broken into the headquarters
of an Iraqi oil company in the southern city of Basra and set fire to
warehouses and offices, reports say. "It was not an accident. The
fire is huge," a South Oil Company official told Reuters
news agency. [Oops, too bad for Halliburton and Exxon, less stolen
oil for today. As the troops sang while bombing Iraq... Burn
MF'r Burn]

Iraq's
South Oil Co. Headquarters Ignited
--Shiite militants loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr broke into
the headquarters of Iraq's South Oil Co. on Thursday and set the company's
warehouses and offices on fire, witnesses said.

Fierce
Fighting in Iraq's Najaf, Sadr Defiant
--Fierce fighting raged in the Iraqi city of Najaf on Thursday where
a Shi'ite leader spurned a final order from the prime minister to disarm
his militia or face an attack on his sanctuary in a holy shrine. U.S.
aircraft and tanks pounded the area around Najaf's Imam Ali Mosque where
Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi militia have holed up.

Leach
says U.S. needs to leave Iraq as soon as possible
--Instead of focusing on his campaign like other stump speakers at the
Iowa State Fair this week, U.S. Rep. Jim Leach (R–2nd District) emphasized
the need for the United States to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible.

Blairs
trapped in palace by security fears
--Italian newspapers reported yesterday that the Blairs have been confined
to base in Tuscany since the discovery of a time bomb in a Sardinian
resort close to the villa where Silvio Berlusconi entertained the Prime
Minister and his wife with fireworks and wine.

Unwilling
participantsIraqi
soccer players angered by Bush campaign ads
--Iraqi midfielder Salih Sadir scored a goal here on Wednesday night,
setting off a rousing celebration among the 1,500 Iraqi soccer supporters
at Pampeloponnisiako Stadium... Afterward, Sadir had a message for U.S.
Dictator George W. Bush, who is using the Iraqi Olympic team in his
latest re-s-election campaign advertisements.
"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential
campaign," Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and
directly. "He can find another way to advertise himself."

Anti-Americanism
a Hit With Egyptian Audiences
--In Cairo's entertainment world these days, it's hard to escape a wave
of anti-Americanism. Often, a sure way to fill a theater is to lambaste
U.S. foreign policy, cultural habits or military activity. One recent
comedy lampooning the United States featured an exploding Statue of
Liberty outside the lobby.

U.S.
Poll Firm in Hot Water in Venezuela --A U.S. firm's exit poll
that said President Hugo Chavez would lose a recall referendum has landed
in the center of a controversy following his resounding victory. "Exit
Poll Results Show Major Defeat for Chavez," the survey, conducted by
Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, asserted even as Sunday's voting
was still on. But in fact, the opposite was true Chavez ended up
trouncing his enemies and capturing 59 percent of the vote. Critics
of the exit poll have questioned how it was conducted because officials
have said Penn, Schoen & Berland worked with a
U.S.-funded Venezuela group that the Chavez government considers
hostile. Penn, Schoen & Berland had members of Sumate, a Venezuelan
group that helped organize the recall initiative, do
the fieldwork for the poll, election observers said.

FBI
backs off terror alert
(AZ, KOVA News) Yesterday, we told you about an alert issued by the
F-B-I for a suspected al-CIA-duh
member who may be trying to cross the border through Arizona or Texas.
Today, the feds are telling us that news reports about the terrorism
suspect are overblown and outdated.

New
Yorkers Launch Huge
Anti-Bush Banner with Balloons in Grand Central Station "(and
walk away unhassled, amid cheers) --The banner now hangs from the Vanderbilt
Avenue end of the Terminal’s vaulted ceiling, across from the large
American Flag hanging above the eastern end of the concourse."
More images here.

Long
Range Acoustic Device Weapons On Hand At RNC
--The New York Police Department recently bought two 45-pound Long Range
Acoustic Device weapons ['acoustic machines'] for $35,000 apiece, and
plans to mount them on Humvees posted outside Madison Square Garden.
The portable, dish-shaped instrument - developed
for the military - is able to blast warnings, orders or anything
else at an earsplitting 150 decibels. The LRAD is part of an arsenal
of devices and counter[pro]terrorism
equipment that authorities unveiled Thursday ahead of the Repugnant
Nazi Carnival Aug. 30-Sept. 2. [Thank God for Bose noise
cancellation headphones . . . with music port, cable, and fold-flat
design. --Mark J. Yannone, Phoenix, AZ]

Silent
Weapons for Quiet Wars --An introductory programming manual
Operations Research Technical Manual TM-SW7905.1 --"This publication
marks the 25th anniversary of the Third World War, called the 'Quiet
War,' being conducted using subjective biological warfare, fought with
'silent weapons.' This book contains an introductory description of
this war, its strategies, and its weaponry. May 1979 #74-1120"

Report:
Bush 'Reckless' on Post-9/11 Health Risks
--The Bush dictatorship was guilty of reckless
disregard by failing to inform New Yorkers of health risks from toxic
air after the collapse of the World Trade Center in the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks, a leading environmental group said.

Error
puts Kennedy on airline no-fly list
--Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on Thursday said he had been misidentified
on a terrorism watch list when he tried to board airliners between Washington
and Boston. The well-known Massachusetts Democrat was stopped five times
as he tried to board US Airways shuttles because a name similar to his
appeared on a list or his name popped up for additional screening. [Gee,
if it were John Kerry, he'd still be grounded. This no-fly list is a
SCAM, and this proves it!!! Only the POLITICAL
opponents of Repugnant Pigs are on the no-fly list. The Republicans
should be made to WALK. They are the most unpatriotic, nation-selling,
Swiftboat lying PIGS on EARTH.]

Bush
Uses Surrogates for 'Dirty Work,' Kerry Says
--John Kerry accused Dictator Bush of using surrogates to "do his dirty
work," as the Democratic presidential challenger hit back on Thursday
at a Republican assault on his Vietnam War record. Kerry said a group
called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has attacked the Massachusetts
senator's war record via television advertisements, was funded by
hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor in Texas,
Bush's home state.

Kerry:
Bush Lets Groups Do 'Dirty Work'
--Sen. John Kerry accused Dictator Bush on Thursday of relying on front
groups to challenge his record of valor in Vietnam, asserting, "He
wants them to do his dirty work." Fighting back, Kerry said if Bush
wants to "have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer:
'Bring it on.'"

It's
only fiction, but is it legal? (July 30, 2004) An author's dramatization
of a fact-based argument about killing President [sic] Bush makes Michael
Moore's diatribe in 'Fahrenheit 9/11' look tame by comparison - and
may push the boundaries of free speech. Author Nicholson Baker says
his book is about 'the moral consequences of war.' --by Ron Charles

Bush
fails on economy, says latest pollMost feel his Democratic
opponent in the presidential election, Kerry, would do a better job
with the economy and health care --The American public is largely
dissatisfied with economic conditions as well as Dictator George W.
Bush's stewardship of the economy, according to poll results just published
by the Pew Research Institute.

Vermont
Sues FDA to Allow Importing of Drugs
--Vermont sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday over
the agency's opposition to the state's plan to help its employees and
retirees import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.

GOP
coup d'etat efforts halted in New Jersey:Effort
to Push McGreevey Out Is Collapsing --The effort to force embattled
Gov. James E. McGreevey to leave office in time to schedule a special
election appeared to collapse on Thursday.

Global
warming to devastate Europe first
--European winters will disappear by 2080
and extreme weather will become more common unless global warming across
the continent is slowed, warns a major new report. Europe is warming
more quickly than the rest of the world with potentially devastating
consequences, including more frequent heatwaves, flooding, rising sea
levels and melting glaciers, says the European Environment Agency (EEA)
document, launched on Wednesday.

Delegate:
Sadr Agrees to Withdraw Fighters
--Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr agreed to withdraw fighters from the
Imam Ali shrine in Najaf Wednesday just hours after Iraqi officials
gave him and his militia hours to lay down their arms before they stormed
the holy shrine where about 3,000 fighters are holed up.

GOP
Legislator Assails Iraq War
--Nebraskan Criticizes Bush Regime as He Ends 13th Term --A senior Republican
has broken from his party in the final days of his House career, saying
he believes that the U.S. military assault on Iraq was unjustified and
that the situation has deteriorated into "a
dangerous, costly mess." "I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively,
now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being
revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch
that military action," Rep. Doug Bereuter wrote to constituents.

RP-US
military exercises to continue despite strained ties
--Joint military exercises between Filipino and American troops will
continue as scheduled in the next four months despite the strained relations
between the Philippines and the United States in the aftermath of last
month's pullout of Filipino troops from Iraq.

US
general's 'Satan' speeches broke rules
--A United States army general violated Pentagon rules with speeches
in which he described the war on terror as a Christian battle against
Satan, and he should be punished, according to an inspector-general's
report revealed today.

Bu$h's
W-ar helping Exxon-Mobil corpora-terrorists:Oil
price expected to reach 50 dollars per barrel
--Analysts expected oil prices to continue their increase in the future
to reach 50 dollars per barrel, despite the slight decrease in the price
for the second running day from their record levels. Experts in the
field of oil said that the prices are expected to increase as far as
the turmoil factors which contribute to that are still there like the
situation in Iraq and the terrorist operations in Saudi Arabia.

Israel's
pipe dream: getting oil from Iraq --...Ahmad Chalabi promised
to reopen an old British-built pipeline from Kirkuk in northern Iraq
to the Israeli port of Haifa. The plan impressed Richard Perle, Douglas
Feith and other conservatives influencing Bush regime policy toward
Iraq in the lead-up to last year's war. The idea also drew enthusiastic
response from Israel. "The pipeline would be a dream," Yosef
Paritzky, Israel's minister of infrastructures, said as reported by
Salon.com.

Military
Boost May Spark Unrest
--Washington's plans to beef up its military base in Uzbekistan as part
of a troop realignment abroad could whip up tensions between the impoverished
ex-Soviet republic's secular government and radical Islamic groups,
analysts and opposition politicians say.

57-year-old
veteran called for duty
--He’s 57 years old, afflicted with skin cancer, partially deaf and
suffers from high blood pressure. But the U.S. Army still wants Master
Sgt. Luis Jaime Treviño. On July 14, the Vietnam and Desert Storm veteran
received his third order to report to active duty — mobilized for Operation
Iraqi Freedom [sic].

Raytheon
Gets U.S. Missile Work
--Raytheon Co. was awarded a contract worth as much as $1.6
billion for full-rate production of about 2,200 Tomahawk
Block IV cruise missiles, the company and the U.S. Department of Defense
said on Wednesday.

Bush
Troop Realignment Plan Is Decried
--Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry assailed Dictator Bush's
plan Wednesday to dramatically reduce the number of troops stationed
around the globe, calling the realignment a potential threat to the
nation's security.

Bush
to Bring War Home: Troops to Fight Americans --by Michael Jordan
"The recent Bush move to bring an armored division and an infantry
division from Europe back to provide security in the United States smells
really bad. Think about it, TANKS and TROOPS to protect us from Mexico
and Canada? These troops and tanks are supposed to be part of a larger
redeployment but the entire operation may be just a charade for the
purpose of getting troops and tanks into the streets of American cities
to quell the inevitable riots that would surely erupt if Bush is handed
another dirty election victory through the combined influences of rigged
machines, phony voter purge lists and the orchestrated state police
intimidation techniques which are being used in Florida right now."

NYPD
to Shadow 56 Protesters Believed Most DangerousWABC --details on the incredible lengths the NYPD is taking to keep
the most 'radical' protesters expected at the Repugnant Nazi Carnival
under control --Police are now tracking
56 potentially 'dangerous' people. While international terrorism
remains a concern, this operation's focus is primarily on anarchists,
and how they plan to disrupt the convention. This week the NYPD began
instructing officers on intelligence on this threat. [Shadow *this.*]

Mega
barf alert!FBI
Expects [Foments] Violence at GOP Convention --The FBI anticipates
violent protests at the upcoming Repugnant
Nazi Carnival in New York but does not have enough evidence
to move against any group or person, the bureau's top terrorism official
said Wednesday.

Specter
of a police stateFBI
"anti-terror" task force targets Bush administration opponents
(WSWS) "In violation of basic democratic and Constitutional rights,
the JTTF [FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force] has placed under surveillance,
and in some cases interviewed, dozens of people in at least six states
about their antiwar views and actions... The spying operation is, in
fact, a revival of McCarthyite tactics, aimed at silencing opponents
of government policy."

NYC
to GOP: Drop Dead
--by Ted Rall "A poll cited by the local ABC affiliate shows 83
percent of New Yorkers don't want their city to host the RNC. And many
of them are planning to do something about it. Rejecting ex-mayor Ed
Koch's call to 'make nice' with the party that used the deaths of 2,801
New Yorkers--most of them Democrats--for everything from tax cuts for
the rich to building concentration camps at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib
to invading Iraq to enrich Dick Cheney and his fellow Halliburton execs,
some groups are encouraging liberal-minded New Yorkers to volunteer
for the city's squad of official greeters."

Records
Counter A Critic of Kerry
--Fellow Skipper's Citation Refers To Enemy Fire --Newly obtained military
records of one of Sen. John F. Kerry's most vocal critics, who has accused
the Democratic presidential candidate of lying about his wartime record
to win medals, contradict his own version of
events.

Soldier
with Kerry in '68 says he earned first medal
--An Ohio factory worker who was with John Kerry on a dangerous night
mission 36 years ago in Vietnam said he has no doubt Kerry was grazed
in a firefight and deserves his first Purple Heart for a combat
injury.

Only
true believers need apply --Neurotic
control lies at the heart of the Republican campaign --by
Sidney Blumenthal "Bush is campaigning at events billed as Ask
President [sic] Bush. Only supporters are allowed in. ...At his rallies
Bush is a pseudo-populist. But these controlled environments reflect
his deeper view of the presidency as sovereign, preempting democracy.
Floundering in the polls, without a strategy for Iraq, unwilling to
say the name of Bin Laden, he is secure in the knowledge that the cheering
multitudes have been selected." [A must read]

Election
2004: Florida under microscope again heading into election
--Questions about electronic 'voting' machines and a series of embarrassing
blunders have stoked concerns months before the November ballot about
another bungled vote in the state that was the epicenter of the 2000
coup d'etat ['presidential election fiasco']. Critics argue the new
'system,' which is deployed in more than a dozen states and could
be used by up to 50 million voters in the fall, is vulnerable to
tampering and glitches.

Group
of unions sues state over provisional ballot law
--Citing fears of disenfranchisement, several unions asked the
Florida Supreme Court to throw out a law requiring provisional ballots
be cast in the correct precinct. Several unions went to Florida's highest
court on Tuesday and asked it to strike down a law that requires people
who use provisional ballots to cast them in the right precinct.

Bush
Cancels Funding for Important Weather Satellite Program
(buzzflash) --by Captain Wayne R. Genthner "The TRMM satellite
program has been used for over a decade in successful forecasts of intensity
and tracking for tropical systems like Hurricane Charley. To the dismay
of working professionals, coastal residents and the world science community,
funding for this vital program has been terminated by the Bush administration,
even as these scientists argue that we are now handicapping our ability
to deliver concise warnings of impending hurricane landfalls."

FL
Eyewitness Death Count Close to 400 Now
--by Michael Edward (Rumor Mill News Agents Forum, 8-17-4) "...[L]et
me spell out the body counts that 6 of us (all retired military and/or
law enforcement) went out to confirm today in different areas. These
are confirmed bodies in the trucks, restaurant refers, or refer vans,
and they are NOT 'missing persons' or animals: Charlotte Harbor areas
- 58 dead as of 5pm today; Fort Myers & the barrier islands - 21 deaths
as of 3pm today; Punta Gorda - 275+ deaths and escalating each hour;
Desoto County - 36 deaths, expected to increase... The current CONFIRMED
body count in our 3 county area on the west coast of Florida is near
400 as I write this... Considering most
of the trained and experienced personnel and modern equipment from the
Florida National Guard are now in the Middle East, JEB THE
BUSH dared to send us antiquated equipment that broke down on I-75 driven
by untrained personnel who have no idea what to do... There is no
Florida National Guard... all the necessary equipment we need is sitting
in Iraq or Kuwait right now."

With
Storm Gone, Floridians Are Hit With Price Gouging
--Since the winds of Hurricane Charley subsided, officials say a wave
of price gouging has swept across central and southwest Florida, putting
law enforcement officials into high gear and infuriating storm victims
already faced with damaged homes, shuttered workplaces and long lines
for basic commodities.

Europe
'must adapt on climate'
--An EEA [European Environment Agency] report, Impacts of Europe's changing
climate, says fewer
than 50 years remain to act against the threat. It says melting
meant Europe's glaciers lost a tenth of their mass last year, and harvests
fell by almost a third. The EEA says the climate
change under way now probably exceeds all natural climate variation
for a thousand years.

Leukaemia
link to petrol stations
--Living near a petrol station or commercial garage may quadruple the
risk of childhood leukaemia. The study in France found a link between
cases of acute leukaemia among youngsters and how close they lived to
a petrol station or a garage carrying out car repairs.

Sources:
Prof claims gay affair with Cipel --The media-created ['New
Jersey gay sex'] scandal took an explosive new turn as a man claiming
to be Golan Cipel's lover came forward and reported the affair to aides
of Gov. Jim McGreevey, sources said yesterday. The mystery man, a college
professor from northern Jersey, called the governor's office to assert
he and Cipel had been romantically involved, sources said. If true,
the new lover could blow apart Cipel's claims
that he is straight and seriously damage Cipel's credibility as a victim
of McGreevey's unwanted sexual advances.

Corzine
Says He Won't Run for N.J. Governor
--Sen. Jon Corzine said Wednesday that he won't run for governor in
a special election, declaring he would not serve out the rest of Gov.
James E. McGreevey's term. Corzine said McGreevey has assured him that
he intends to serve through Nov. 15, in which case a special election
would not be held.

Bush
twins to see gay vows
-- When Washington-area beautician Erwin Gomez and his longtime partner
James Packard celebrate their marital vows with 400 of their closest
friends next month, two of Gomez's best customers will probably be in
attendance: Dictator Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara.

*****

Possible
snag [LOL!] in FBI case against mosque leaders --The government
hit a major snag in its case against two Albany mosque members.
Federal prosecutors said an Army intelligence expert misinterpreted
a key word in a notebook linking imam Yassin Aref to Iraqi terrorists.
The original translation had Aref referred to as a "commander." But
the actual translation from Kurdish-to-English is "brother." An
attorney representing Mohammed Hossain, the other man arrested in the
sting, said the mistakes undermine the government's
entire case. [Oops!! ...I sure hope the lawsuits against
AshKKKroft quickly follow.]

Iraqi
police threaten to kill reporters
--[US-trained, installed]Iraqi police
have threatened to kill every journalist working in the holy
city of Najaf, where US forces are locked in a tense stand-off with
Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. After a series of veiled warnings to leave
on Sunday, two marked police cars pulled up at dusk outside the Sea
of Najaf hotel on the outskirts of town, where Arab and Western journalists
are staying. Ten uniformed policemen walked into the hotel and demanded
that the al-Arabiya, Reuters and AP correspondents go with them.

Rumsfeld
Says US Forces "Unlikely" To Storm Holy Places In Najaf
--The United States pulled its punch in Iraq late Tuesday as Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced US forces arrayed in Najaf against
Shiite militants of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr were "unlikely" to storm
the town`s holy places to deal the militia a fatal blow.

Army,
in Shift, Will Pay Halliburton
--The Army reversed a decision late Tuesday to withhold payment on 15
percent of future payments to the Halliburton Company on its contracts
in Iraq and Kuwait, giving the company more time to resolve a billing
dispute.

US
suspends Halliburton decision
--The US army has said it has suspended for now a decision to withhold
some payments to Halliburton, its biggest contractor in Iraq. The army
had earlier said it would be withholding 15% of payments on future bills
to Halliburton, once run by US Vice-pResident
Dick Cheney.

Army
will withhold payment to Halliburton due to suspicious bills
(HalliburtonWatch.org) --The U.S. Army has decided to withhold 15 percent
of future payments to Halliburton because the company apparently billed
taxpayers for work that was never undertaken or completed, Reuters reports.
The Pentagon last week told Halliburton's KBR subsidiary that $1.8
billion in bills from the company's work in the Middle East are not
verifiable. The $1.8 billion represents 43 percent of Halliburton's
total bills submitted to the Pentagon for reimbursement. The company
was given until Aug. 15 to justify those bills, but failed to meet that
deadline. It also failed to meet two previous deadlines that had been
extended, Reuters reported.

Iraq
closes one main oil exporting pipelines following threats
(8/16/2004) One Iraqi oil official said yesterday that the main oil
pipeline which carried exportation oil in al-Basra city to the south
of Iraq was blocked after intelligent information said that Shiite gunmen
might attack the basic infrastructure for oil industry.

Oil
Prices Set Record, Near $47 a Barrel
--Oil prices set a new record Tuesday, approaching $47
a barrel, as concerns about Iraqi and Russian output dominated markets
that had been calmed a day earlier by the results of a vote in Venezuela.

Latest
polls have Howard trailing badly
--Australian Prime Minister John Howard's government has fallen significantly
behind the opposition Labor party in opinion polls released on Tuesday
as questions over Howard's honesty look likely to dominate a looming
election. In face of sliding support, the prime minister hinted that
he could delay calling the election [a Bush-Rove tactic], expected
in coming months, until early 2005. [Either that or import Diebold
machines...]

'NY
Times' Gets 2 More Subpoenas in Plame Case
--The New York Times has received two more subpoenas from prosecutors
investigating who leaked the identity of former CIA officer Valerie
Plame to the press, Editor&Publisher has learned. The two latest subpoenas
arrived over the weekend.

US
'bounty hunter' claims FBI links
--An alleged American bounty-hunter on trial for running a private jail,
kidnapping and torturing prisoners in Afghanistan has accused FBI agents
of seizing evidence proving his links to US authorities. Jonathon Idema
told an Afghan court on Monday the US Federal Bureau of Investigation
had taken hundreds of videotapes, photos and documents from the Afghan
National Directorate of Security (NDS). The "evidence" detailed his
links with the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, the US Defence
Department and US-led forces, he said.

State
Dept. presses case against Iran
--The Bush dictatorship will keep using diplomacy to try to end Iran's
drive for nuclear weapons, but there is no sign yet that Iran - or North
Korea - has decided to follow Libya's lead and abandon its dangerous
goal, a senior Bush regime official said Tuesday.

Bush
Promotes His Plan for Missile 'Defense' System
--Saying he was "living in the future,"
[?!?] Dictator Bush promoted his plans for a missile 'defense'
system on Tuesday and said that its opponents were putting the nation's
security at risk, as he courted aerospace workers in Pennsylvania before
rallying supporters in West Virginia.

Rumsfeld
rejects 'Fortress America' charge
--U.S. Defence Secretary [W-ar criminal]
Donald Rumsfeld has rejected criticism of a plan to remove U.S. troops
from Europe and Asia, saying the United States has no intention of abandoning
allies to establish a "Fortress America."

Bush's
Withdrawal From the World --by Ronald D. Asmus "Harry Truman
must be turning over in his grave. The planned withdrawal of U.S. troops
from Europe and Asia that President [sic] Bush announced this week,
if allowed to stand, could lead to the demise of the United States'
key alliances across the globe, including the one that Truman considered
his greatest foreign policy accomplishment: NATO."

Harkin:
Cheney's comments 'cowardly' --Vice pResident
Dick Cheney's questioning of John Kerry's war record and his ability
to protect America is "cowardly,"
Sen. Tom Harkin said Monday. "It just outrages me that someone who
got five deferments during Vietnam and said he had 'other priorities'
at that time would say that," said the Iowa Democrat, a former Navy
fighter pilot.

Venezuelans
give Chavez landslide win
--Opposition cries foul, but observers say
vote was clean; oil prices drop --In a stunning victory,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez easily defeated a recall referendum
that sought to end his self-described revolution that has given hope
to the poor but has bitterly divided this strategic oil-rich nation.
Electoral officials announced Monday that Chavez received about 58 percent
of the vote in Sunday's balloting.

The
Al Qaeda Express
--by William E. Jackson Jr. "There is one inescapable conclusion
from recent press coverage of the steady streams of threat information
emanating from Washington and London and Pakistan. National newspapers,
however unwittingly, have been drawn into 'flooding the zone' with stories
that move to the forefront of public consciousness the issue that the
White House would like to have at the top of the agenda in this election
season: domestic security and threats to the homeland. On any given
day, it is clear that presidential staff, the Secretary of Homeland
Security, or an anonymous intelligence official, can crank up the cycle
again by feeding the frenzy."

Inquiry
Into F.B.I. Questioning Is Sought
--Several Democratic lawmakers called on Tuesday for a Justice Department
investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's questioning
of would-be demonstrators about possible violence at the political conventions,
saying the questioning may have violated the First Amendment.

Ticket
ripped because of sticker --Teacher, 55, wanted to see a
president --Kathryn Mead wanted to see her first sitting president
[sic] when George W. Bush visited the city. Instead, Bush campaign staffers
tore up the 55-year-old social studies teacher's ticket and refused
her admission because she sported a small sticker on her blouse that
touted the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards. "I had
my ticket and photo identification, but they would not let me in because
of this sticker," said Mead, a teacher at Traverse City West Senior
High, who said she has seen Queen Elizabeth and Pope John Paul in person.
"I have never found this kind of screening
anywhere in my travels around the world. I can't imagine
being denied access to hearing the president of the United States speak."

Caught
On Tape: Cops Use Taser Gun On Man Trying to Get Home
--'Officers' [Jeb Bush's Nazis] in hurricane-ravaged Fort Myers used
a Taser gun on a man allegedly trying to get by a police barrier to
get home, and it was caught on tape. The man had three children in the
car with him. Many in the crowd felt for the man who hasn't seen his
home in days.

Deadlines
Urged for Terror Fixes--9/11
Panel Wants Homeland Security Department Accountable --Members of
the Sept. 11 commission urged Congress yesterday to impose strict deadlines
on the Department of Homeland Security to close loopholes in the nation's
transportation system, even if it means going up against powerful interest
groups and spending billions of dollars.

Fahrenheit
911 cancelled after warning from US Embassy --The Foreign Correspondents
Club of Thailand (FCCT) on Monday cancelled a planned screening of "Fahrenheit
911" - Michael Moore's scathing documentary on US Dictator George W.
Bush - after receiving an unofficial warning from the US embassy. A
private screening of the same film planned in Hong Kong, organised in
a pub by the Democrats Abroad, was also aborted after an anonymous
caller warned the group it could face legal problems if it showed a
pirated version of the controversial documentary.

The
Secret Hijacking--The
Fifth Plane landed in Cleveland --by Woody Box "The Secret Hijacking
-The Fifth Plane landed in Cleveland... --The thesis of the secret hijacked
airplane helps to explain many hitherto unsolved peculiarities of 9/11.
It looks like the existence of this flight was meant to be hidden from
the public by interested circles, so the question arises: Why was it
kept secret? And of course it would be interesting to find out the airport
where Flight X started."

The
Cleveland Airport Mystery
--200 passengers got lost on 9/11 -- by Woody Box (May 30, 2004)
"In midst the chaos breaking out in the hours after the WTC and
Pentagon attacks, between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m an airplane made an emergency
landing at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Rumours were going around that
it was hijacked or had a bomb on board... The plane - Delta flight 1989
- was not hijacked, and there was no bomb. However, a closer examination
reveals a bunch of conflicting statements concerning Delta 1989... For
every aspect of the incident there are two different versions. Not one
or three or four versions, but two. This article will prove that not
one, but two planes made an emergency landing in Cleveland - in close
succession."

Illinois
Governor Launching Program to Reimport Drugs Move May Force FDA's [The
FDA suddenly *cares* about safety? LOL] Hand
--Despite opposition from a federal agency, Illinois will soon become
the nation's first government to help residents buy cheaper drugs not
only from Canada but from the United Kingdom and Ireland as well. In
an announcement later today, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) is scheduled to
unveil the program, which will be coordinated and managed for the state
by a Canadian pharmacy benefits company . [California the target?
I think Illinois and the Sears Tower may be the 'target' of the Bush
terror team. Lots of Democrats running the show, and there is
less focus on the state than CA and NY.]

Kerry
Would Allow Overseas Drug Imports; Bush's Pharmaceutical Terrorists
Worry --Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has said
he would allow Americans to legally buy less expensive prescription
drugs from Canada and other countries if he is elected president. Kerry
would be following the lead of a handful of states and cities that have
set up web sites directing their citizens to pharmacies in Canada that
typically sell brand-name drugs at prices that can be half the price
consumers pay in the U.S. [Why is that? Why are Bush's installers,
the pharmaceutical terrorists (who have
killed more than al CIA-duh has by forcing senior citizens to either
eat or take pills or cut pills in half) charge US citizens *double*
the price for these prescriptions?]

Blacks
in Texas County File Rights Suit
--Black leaders filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against several white
officials in Waller County, alleging "an extensive
illegal reign of terror against African-American" officials.
One of the six plaintiffs, Justice of the Peace Dewayne Charleston,
said District Attorney Oliver Kitzman sought to intimidate people after
he lost a legal battle this year to keep students at historically black
Prairie View A&M University from voting in the county northwest of Houston.

Saving
the Vote
--by Paul Krugman "Everyone knows it, but not many politicians
or mainstream journalists are willing to talk about it, for fear of
sounding conspiracy-minded: there is a substantial chance that the result
of the 2004 presidential election will be suspect. When I say that the
result will be suspect, I don't mean that the election will, in fact,
have been stolen... Given this pattern,
there will be skepticism [revolution] if Florida's paperless
voting machines give President [sic] Bush an upset, uncheckable victory."

Hackers
Take Aim at GOP
--Online protests targeting GOP websites could turn out to be more than
symbolic during this month's Repugnant Nazi Carnival, possibly
blocking a critical communications tool for the party. Hardened electronic
activists are planning to jam the servers of GeorgeWBush.com, GOP.com
and related [pornographic] websites, once the RNC gets underway
Aug. 29. [Great, hack away!!]

Nader
gains spot on W.Va. ballot
--Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader's name will appear
on West Virginia's general election ballot in November, the secretary
of state's office said Tuesday.

U.S.
Debt Burden Is Higher Now than During Depression, Study Says
(Mar. 15, 2004) --The United States is shouldering a greater debt burden
today than it did during the Great Depression. The total amount owed
– by consumers, businesses, governments and financial institutions –
totaled $34.4 trillion at the end of 2003, according to the Federal
Reserve. The economy produced $11.3 trillion of output.

'Boiling
Point': Who's to Blame for Global Warming? --by Al Gore "In
this new book, [Ross] Gelbspan focuses his toughest language by far
on the coal and oil industries. After documenting the largely successful
efforts of companies like ExxonMobil to paralyze the policy process,
confuse the American people and cynically 'reposition global warming
as theory rather than fact,' as one strategy paper put it, he concludes
that 'what began as a normal business response by the fossil fuel lobby
-- denial and delay -- has now attained the status of a crime against
humanity.'"

*****

Suppress
the Vote?
--by Bob Herbert "[Florida]
State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters
in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd 'investigation' that
has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown
a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November... The
state police officers, armed and in plain clothes, have questioned dozens
of voters in their homes."

Police
fire at reporters as US tanks roll up to shrine
--The bullet that whistled through the lobby of the Sea Hotel in Najaf
yesterday, embedding shards of glass into a foreign reporter's cheek
before lodging itself in an air-conditioning unit, carried an unmistakable
message: "Get out." In Najaf...
the Iraqi police threaten journalists, and
the insurgents welcome them.

Taken
at Gunpoint, U.S. Journalist and His Interpreter Are Missing in Iraq
--Micah Garen, an American journalist who was investigating the looting
of ancient artifacts in Iraq, was missing along with his Iraqi interpreter
on Monday after the two were led at gunpoint on Friday from a shop in
the southern city of Nasiriya, according to news reports and the men's
families.

Delegation
Dispatched to Meet With Sadr
--In a new initiative to avoid bloodshed in some of Islam's holiest
places, a high-level delegation of Iraqi political leaders will be dispatched
Tuesday to the embattled city of Najaf to convince Shiite leader Moqtada
Sadr to abandon his rebellion and join the country's political process.

U.S.
tanks take up positions near Shiite shrine
--U.S. tanks rolled into the Old City of Najaf toward a holy Shiite
shrine where militants were positioned on Monday. Witnesses reported
U.S. tanks had moved to within 500 yards of the revered Imam Ali Shrine.

Offensive
resumes in Najaf, prompting desertions of Iraqi troops
--U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a renewed assault Sunday on Shiite
Muslim militiamen in the southern holy city of Najaf in a risky campaign
that was marred from the onset by an outcry from Iraqi politicians and
the desertion of dozens [Fuzzy math? Likely, it's more than 'dozens...']
of Iraqi troops who refused to fight their countrymen.

Destruction
of the Imam Ali Shrine: Part of the Bushcon Plan for Total War
--by Kurt Nimmo "As Juan Cole, an Iraq expert at the University
of Michigan, notes, the 'Waco-style' Najaf attack, especially if 'Sayyid'
(a putative descendant of the Prophet Muhammad) Muqtada is killed, will
most assuredly result in 'a long-term low-intensity guerrilla war, similar
to what Sunni radicals and Arab nationalists have done in the Sunni
heartland for the past 16 months.' Logically, we would conclude such
an attack is diametrically opposed to what the US wants in Iraq—until
we consider the capper of the neocon philosophy is to provoke
Islam into a generalized conflagration and thus provide an excuse to
invade and occupy the Middle East in the name of Greater Israel and
Big Oil (with plentiful benefits, as noted above, going to
the so-called military-industrial complex, or the death merchants so
heavily invested in by the neocon camarilla in the Pentagon, the White
House, and neocon criminal organizations such as PNAC and the American
Enterprise Institute)." [a must read]

Round
two for Kabul's trial of year
--Kabul's trial of the year has resumed. Former US soldier Jonathan
K Idema and two other Americans, Edward Caraballo and Brent Bennett,
are facing charges including hostage-taking, torture, illegally entering
Afghanistan and running a private jail... Mr Idema claimed at the first
hearing three weeks ago then that he was in Afghanistan on a secret
anti-terrorist mission approved at the highest levels of the Pentagon
- claims the US military denies. "We were in
contact directly by fax and e-mail and phone with [Defence Secretary]
Donald Rumsfeld's office," Mr Idema said when journalists
asked him to name names, "and with the deputy secretary of defence
for intelligence." Mr Idema's lawyer in America, John Tiffany, says
he is assembling a "slew of evidence" which proves his client was working
for the US government. He says it includes e-mails, photographs and
video, but says he does not want to reveal any details for now.

Rumsfeld
escapes blame in 'whitewash' Abu Ghraib report
--A Pentagon report on prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison is being
labelled a whitewash before it has even been released... The role
of the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, has been judged to be
outside the investigation's remit, despite allegations that extreme
treatment of prisoners was authorised at the highest levels. Last
month, Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, the commander formerly in charge of
Abu Ghraib, alleged
that Mr Rumsfeld had authorised the use of
"dogs, food deprivation and sleep deprivation".

Family
of Iraq Abuse Whistleblower Threatened --Relatives of the U.S.
soldier who sounded the alarm about abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu
Ghraib prison said on Monday the family was living in protective custody
because of death threats against them.

Venezuelans
Vote to Keep Chavez in Office
--Venezuelans overwhelmingly voted to keep President Hugo Chavez in
office, dealing a crushing defeat to a splintered opposition and allowing
the leftist leader to convert one of the biggest challenges of his presidency
into an even broader mandate to carry on his "revolution for the
poor."

Chavez
"survived quite easily the referendum"
--World oil prices set new record high points but later retreated as
traders reacted with relief to a referendum victory by Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez. Oil prices later slid after electoral authorities in Venezuela,
the world's fifth largest oil exporter, announced Chavez had won
a referendum on his mandate, with over 58 percent of the vote. Chavez
appeared to have "survived quite easily the
referendum, so prices are coming off on the basis of that,"
said Paul Goodhew, a trader at GNI-Man Financial.

Carter:
Observers Agree with Chavez Recall Results
--Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Monday international observers
agreed that leftist President Hugo Chavez won an Aug. 15 recall referendum
fairly despite opposition concerns over fraud in the vote.

Poll
hours extended in Venezuela
--Polling stations in Venezuela extended their hours of operation as
an unprecedented number of voters turned out Sunday to cast a ballot
on the future of their president. Some lines extended for 2 km forcing
officials to allow people to vote eight hours later than scheduled.

Dick
Cheney, Hugo Chavez and Bill Clinton's Band --Why Venezuela
has Voted Again for Their 'Negro e Indio' President --by Greg Palast
"...[T]he President of Venezuela [Hugo Chavez] demanded 30%, leaving
Big Oil only 70%. Suddenly, Bill Clinton's ally in Caracas became Mr.
Cheney's -- and therefore, Mr. Bush's -- enemy. So began the Bush-Cheney
campaign to 'Floridate' the will of the Venezuela electorate. It
didn't matter that Chavez had twice won election. Winning most of the
votes, said a White House spokesman, did not make Chavez' government
'legitimate.' Hmmm.Secret contracts were
awarded by our Homeland Security spooks to steal official Venezuela
voter lists. Cash passed discreetly from the US taxpayer,
via the so-called 'Endowment for Democracy,' to the Chavez-haters running
today's 'recall' election."

The
recall referendum in Venezuela --A
crushing blow to the counterrevolution --by Alan Woods "...[T]he
opposition still persists in describing him as a 'dictator'. This flies
in the face of the facts. Whatever you think about Hugo Chávez he is
not a dictator. After almost six years in government, President Chávez
has not only maintained his popular support but increased it... Now
his support is near 60 percent. Defeated in every election, the opposition
has tried to remove Chávez from power through a coup d'etat in 2002,
followed by a management-led shutdown of the state oil company PDVSA.
When these attempts failed the opposition put all their weight behind
the recall referendum to oust the democratically elected President before
the end of his term."

Terror
'the biggest risk in US' --Terrorism poses the biggest short-term
threat to the US economy, a panel of top business economists has said
in a survey.

Terrorism
Is Biggest Economic Threat
--Terrorism has replaced weak employment growth and the ballooning budget
deficit as the biggest immediate threat to the economy, the National
Association for Business Economics said Tuesday.

Government
to Take Over Watch-List Screening --Domestic security officials
said Monday that they planned to begin screening airline passengers
against a list of potential terror suspects, taking over a responsibility
now carried out by the airlines.

FBI:
Al-CIA-duh operating cells in U.S. using
non-Arabs --Al-CIA-duh allies
are believed to be scouting U.S. targets in several states, and the
terror organization is using non-Arabic recruits to avoid detection,
U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials say. The FBI has counter[pro]terrorism
investigations in virtually all 56 of its field offices but has not
broken up a known surveillance cell, either because agents are tailing
suspects who have not committed crimes [?!?] or because they
have descriptions but not identities.

Explosion
at BP U.S. refinery (Fri 13 August, 2004 13:52, essentially
suppressed in the media) A fire after an explosion at BP's 420,000-barrels-per-day
Whiting, Indiana oil refinery is under control, local police say. Whiting's
Detective Sergeant Donald Greer said on Friday there was one minor injury
after the large blast. "I live a mile from the refinery and I could
feel my walls trembling," said Greer about the blast. [Why no media
coverage?]

Bill:
CIA Could Arrest US Citizens --Dictator Bush's nominee
to head the CIA supports legislation that would give the president new
authority to direct CIA agents to conduct law-enforcement operations
inside the United States—including arresting American citizens. Rep.
Porter Goss introduced the legislation in June.

F.B.I.
Goes Knocking for Political Troublemakers --The Federal Bureau
of Investigation has been questioning political demonstrators across
the country, and in rare cases even subpoenaing them, in an aggressive
effort to forestall what officials
say could be violent and disruptive protests at the Repugnant
Nazi Carnival in New York. F.B.I. officials are urging agents to
canvass their communities for information
about planned disruptions aimed at the convention and other coming political
events, and they say they have developed
a list of people [?!?] who they think may have information
about possible violence. [List *this.*]

Arrests
at Ground Zero-
Part 2
--by Michael Kane "On August 14, the same day activists were harassed
and illegally threatened with arrest, the skies above Manhattan were
filled with military and police air power as authorities staged a secret
sky-high anti-terror training drill in preparation for the GOP convention
as reported by the NY Post. NORAD jets were involved in the drills,
as were coast guard and local law enforcement. The drill was in response
to a mock report of an unknown airborne attack on Madison Square Garden."

Buchanan
Freed! Judge dismisses case after 4 hr wait for no-show "victim" --by
David Kubiak (no link, email courtesy Pondo) "Judge
Jose Jiminez threw out all charges against John Buchanan today when
the Florida state attorney could not produce the alleged 'victim' in
the case. John was brilliantly represented by Rae Shearon, a Lawyers
Guild pro bono crusader who is also one of Florida's sharpest defense
attorneys, and the case was greatly helped by the torrent of 9/11 supporters'
phone calls and emails that flooded the judge and DA's office. The latter
seemed appropriately anxious and no doubt fully aware that John can
now rightfully sue both her office and the cops for the past three months'
harassment and violation of his rights."

FBI
Tracks Potential GOP Protesters
--With the Republican National Convention less than two weeks away,
federal agents and city police are keeping tabs on activists and others
they believe might try to cause trouble. They are making unannounced
visits to people's homes, conducting interviews and monitoring Web sites
and meetings.

IL
launches compulsory mental health screening
for children and pregnant women
(Monday, July 19, 2004) This week, a series of public forums on a program
requiring all pregnant women and children through age 18 years
to be tested for mental health needs is being held this week in five
different locations statewide. The $10 million plan for the setup of
the Children's Mental Health Act of 2003 is being considered
at this week's public forums starting Monday, July 18 in Champaign.

Bush
accused of exploiting hurricane in Florida as he offers aid to disaster
area --Dictator George Bush flew into south-west Florida yesterday
on a mission that was as much about politics as compassion for the area
devastated by a hurricane over the weekend. With Jeb at his side yesterday,
George Bush faced an uphill task avoiding the impression that he was
politicising the storm. Already, George Bush had declared 20 counties
in Florida as federal disaster areas - making them eligible for millions
of dollars in help.

Fla.
Voucher Law Ruled Unconstitutional
--A Florida law that allows students at failing public schools to attend
private religious schools at taxpayers' expense is unconstitutional,
a state appeals court ruled Monday.

Tax
Burden Shifts to the Middle
--Since 2001, Dictator Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments
from the richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families,
the Congressional Budget Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil
the presidential election campaign.

Study
Finds Climate Shift Threatens California
-- A scientific study released on Monday presents an alarming view of
climate changes in California, finding that by the end of the century
rising temperatures could lead to a sevenfold increase in heat-related
deaths in Los Angeles and imperil the state's wine and dairy industries.

*****

Bush terror team busy
in Caracas:Voters
gunned down in Chavez poll --One person died and 10 others were
wounded today when gunmen opened fire on voters just outside Caracas
during a referendum on the mandate of Venezuela's president, firefighters
said. "What we know is that voters were in line and 'people' [Bush's
terrorists] opened fire from motorbikes, and there are 10 people
with bullet wounds and one person dead," said Caracas fire chief Rodolfo
Briceno.

U.S.
Halts Free Flow of Information From Iraq: Experts --Iranian
politicians and journalists believe that the U.S. is against the free
flow of information in Iraq and that the arrest of the Iranian journalist
should be viewed in this limelight. Hamidreza Haj-Babayee, a top lawmaker,
believes that the U.S. is leading a covert
coup in Iraq by exposing journalists and diplomats to insecurity.

Five
killed in US 'defensive' action
--Five people were killed when US forces carried out multiple bombing
raids in the flashpoint Iraqi city of Fallujah, a doctor said today.
"Five people were killed and six wounded," said the medic from Fallujah
general hospital. "The Americans fired seven missiles."

After
talks fail in Najaf, fighting resumes
--Shiite militiamen battled U.S. and Iraqi forces in the holy city of
Najaf on Sunday, resuming hostilities the day after the collapse of
peace talks aimed at ending 10 days of fighting.

Blasts
rock Baghdad as leaders meet
--At least one person was killed and five wounded when three blasts
rocked Baghdad yesterday as Iraqi leaders met to pick an assembly to
oversee their interim government. Smoke was seen rising near the Rasheed
Hotel on the edge of the green zone compound, where the conference had
opened earlier.

100
desert Iraq conference
--A national conference, hailed as Iraq's first experiment in 'democracy'
for decades, got off to a rocky start today when more than 100 delegates
walked out to protest against fighting in the holy city of Najaf.

Uprising
halves Iraq oil exports --Iraq's oil exports are still running
at half their normal rates as a Shi'ite uprising prevented the re-opening
a main export pipeline and shut the South Oil Company's headquarters.

Al-Sadr:
Iraqi government worse than Hussein --In an exclusive interview
with Aljazeera, Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr said the Iraqi people want
the interim Iraqi government to resign, saying its policies are worse
than those of Saddam Hussein. [Since Dictator Bush was/is
far more dangerous to the world than Saddam Hussein, we would have to
agree.]

Najaf
braces for siege as talks collapse
--Iraq's interim government [US puppet dictatorship] says it is resuming
military operations in the holy city of Najaf after talks with the militia
of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr failed.

Policeman
Shot Dead in Iraq
--A 29-year-old Dutch military policeman was shot dead and five other
Dutch military personnel were seriously wounded during a firefight in
Iraq.

Ukraine
captain in Iraq killed
--The commander of a Ukrainian platoon in Iraq was killed by a remote-controlled
land-mine blast while collecting water this morning, the Defence Ministry
said.

Poland
says 20 soldiers surrounded by Iraq militants
--A group of 20 Polish soldiers have been surrounded by several hundred
militants loyal to Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr at a police station
in Hilla, southern Iraq, a Polish military spokesman said on Friday.

Oil
may touch $50 high
--With oil prices hitting unprecedented highs, and the latest bullish
news from the Middle East, oil analysts now expect prices to soon strike
$47 a barrel and head for $50.

Blair
signs Olympic Truce
--British Prime Minister Tony Blair signed the Olympic Truce at the
birthplace of the games on Saturday, even as his troops in Iraq were
breaking the spirit of the document which calls for a halt in worldwide
conflict during the 16 days of competition.

DOD
Establishes Missile Defense Advisory Committee --The Missile
Defense Advisory Committee (MDAC) is being established in consonance
with the public interest, and in accordance with the provisions of Pub.
L. 92-463, the "Federal Advisory Committee Act.'' The MDAC shall
provide the Department of Defense advice on all matters relating to
missile defense, including system development, technology, program maturity
and readiness of configurations of the ballistic Missile Defense System
(BMDS) to enter the acquisition process.

US
to redeploy 100,000 troops and shut bases
--Dictator George Bush will announce tomorrow that the US military will
pull up to 100,000 troops out of Europe and Asia in the biggest redeployment
since the end of the Cold War.

'Pull
out of Iraq or we attack' threat --An Islamist group has threatened
to attack Italy and the Netherlands if they do not withdraw troops from
Iraq, according to an Internet statement posted today.

Qaeda-Linked
Group Says Will Strike Italy-Web Site
--A group claiming links to al CIA-duh
called on its fighters to attack "all targets" in Italy after it ignored
the group's Aug. 15 deadline for Italian troops to quit Iraq, an Internet
statement said Sunday.

Arab
terrorists 'are getting into the US over Mexican border' --Dictator
Bush has launched a drive to halt illegal immigration across America's
porous southern border, amid growing fears that terrorists may be using
Mexico as a base camp before heading to Arizona, Texas and California.
A string of alarming incidents has convinced Bush administration officials
that lax immigration rules, designed to cope with the huge numbers of
illegal entrants from Mexico, have become a significant loophole in
the war on [of] terror.

Powell
Asks Japan to Withdraw Business from Iran
--In a press conference in Tokyo, US Secretary of State urged the Japanese
government and Japanese businesses to reconsider investing in Iran's
energy sector. "It is clear that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear
weapon," he said.

U.S.
Supports Anti-democratic Forces In Venezuela Recall
--by Robert Jensen "...Bush administration actions in Venezuela
should alert the U.S. public that the commitment to 'expanding democracy'
we hear so much about is largely rhetorical cover for the typical U.S.
interference in the politics of nations in Latin America -- and around
the world. The vehicle for this meddling in Venezuela is the National
Endowment for Democracy, which calls itself 'a private, nonprofit organization'
but is funded by U.S. taxpayers... In the continued quest to
promote 'democracy,' the NED kept funding some of those same opposition
figures as they shifted to a strategy of work stoppages and lockouts
aimed at crippling the country's vital oil industry. When that failed
to dislodge Chavez, they finally took up a legal route, the recall election."

An
Israeli/Rove Connection?The
McGreevey Scandal --by Wayne Madsen "New Jersey was considered
a swing state by the Bush campaign early in the campaign cycle. As John
Kerry leaped to a double-digit lead over Bush in the Garden State, the
rumors surrounding [New Jersey Democratic Governor Jim] McGreevey and
[Charles] Kushner were unleashed. Now, with the Governor announcing
his resignation amid a gay sex scandal, one is instinctively forced
into suspecting the involvement of chief Bush dirty tricks operator
Karl Rove in the affair."

EU
orders health ID cards for all tourists --Britons travelling
in Europe are to be issued with a new card to give them swift access
to the health service when they fall ill. The technology for issuing
the cards - which could be a forerunner to more widespread identity
cards - is being prepared by the Department of Health, on instructions
from the EU Commission, which wants a standard card in use across all
25 EU states.

Sky-High
N.Y. Terror Drill For RNC --The skies above Manhattan will be
filled with military and police air power today as authorities stage
a secret sky-high anti-terror training drill in preparation for the
GOP convention. The practice run, dubbed the "Republican National Convention
Airspace Exercise," will begin at 6 p.m. and involve the combined forces
of the military, the Coast Guard and the NYPD, according to a memo obtained
by The Post.

Due
to expenses incurred in Bush's phony terror war:Rendell
plans charge
for state police patrols (PA) Gov. Ed Rendell is considering
a plan to start charging larger towns a fee -- $95 per resident above
a certain population threshold has been suggested -- for the services
of state police, whose resources are getting stretched thinner as they
get more responsibilities, such as anti-terrorism work, background
checks on casino operators and other duties.

4
Lawmakers Ask For EPA Inquiry
--Hazardous Waste in Question --Four Democratic members of Congress
have requested an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's
writing of a hazardous-waste rule that would benefit industrial laundries,
including a company controlled by the family of one of Dictator Bush's
top fundraisers.

Kerry's
success activated terrorism alert
--by Cathie Olcott (Letter to editor) "Bush had every right to
be frightened after the deeply stirring Democratic Convention, during
which we dared to hope in an America with John Kerry as our president
and respected once again by the world. Bush, the man who urged us into
an illegal war in which over 920 of our young men have died and over
5,500 have been wounded, wouldn’t hesitate to call an Orange Alert to
instill fear in an attempt to draw attention from John Kerry..."

Kerry
Says His Daughter Has Won Fulbright --Democratic presidential
nominee John Kerry said Saturday that his daughter Vanessa has won a
Fulbright scholarship to study medicine in London. Vanessa Kerry is
a 27-year-old Harvard medical student who frequently travels with her
father's campaign. [Compare Kerry's children to Bush's twin guttersnipes...]

Weather
of Mass Distraction: Disingenuous Dictator Bush absorbs precious
Florida resources in order to visit (campaign in) the hurricane-ravaged
swing state.Florida's
devastation is Bush's opportunity --Now that Hurricane Charley
has swept through Florida, it's a safe bet Dictator Bush will sweep
in. Bush swiftly issued a disaster declaration to expedite federal aid
as Charley tore into the Florida Gulf Coast on Friday. He was acting
on a request that had come from his brother Jeb, the governor, even
before the ferocious storm made landfall.

President[sic]'s
visit of damage is a political boon for him
--When Dictator Bush tours the hurricane damage today in Southwest Florida,
it will probably mark one of the only trips to this crucial election-year
state when he doesn't talk politics and trash opponent John Kerry. Bush
won't need to. As a president [sic] who has built his image on leading
in a time of crisis, Bush will earn precious
free television time when the television news networks cover
him as a commander with compassion, not a campaigner with diminishing
popularity.

Kerry
Asks Campaign Workers to Help Charley Victims
--Democrat John Kerry on Saturday asked his presidential campaign workers
in Florida to help in recovery efforts after Hurricane Charley, but
said he had no immediate plans to visit the devastated communities.

'Our
worst fears have come true'Cross-state
blow may outdo Andrew --Rescue workers began picking through
the twisted metal, splintered furniture and scattered insulation of
mobile homes that Hurricane Charley left behind in Charlotte County
on Florida's west coast Saturday. They were looking for the injured
and the dead.

Poisons
slowly choking harbour
--The bed of Sydney Harbour is slowly being poisoned by heavy metals,
pesticides and other toxic chemicals flushed into it each day from the
city's stormwater system.

Rise
in Brain Disease Linked to Environment, Observer Reports
--A worsening environment in the world's most developed nations is causing
rising cases of brain disease, the U.K.'s Observer newspaper said, citing
a report in Public Health. Increasing amounts of pesticides, industrial
effluents, domestic waste, car exhaust and other pollutants were cited
as the main causes for the increase in brain diseases such as Alzheimer's,
Parkinson's and motor neurone disease, the newspaper reported.

*****

US
Offensive In Najaf 'Genocide': Law Experts --As Arabs called
for an immediate halt to sweeping US offensives in the holy Iraqi city
of Najaf, law experts underlined that such offensives, under the pretext
of confronting Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, are classified as
"genocide", according to the recognized
rules of international law.

US
atrocity in Najaf (WSWS) "The US assault on Najaf is
a war crime. The spectacle of the world’s foremost imperialist power
unleashing its overwhelmingly superior military might against poorly
armed opponents of foreign occupation recalls the most notorious crimes
of the twentieth century, including the
fascist bombardment of Guernica in Spain, Mussolini’s rape of Ethiopia,
and the Nazi blitzkrieg against Germany’s European neighbors in World
War II. The US military, in the name of Washington’s puppet
government under Iyad Allawi, is carrying out the slaughter of supporters
of leader Moqtada al-Sadr who have taken up arms against the attempt
to turn Iraq into a de-facto American colony."

U.S.
Halts Najaf Attacks; Iraqis Seek Truce Accord
--U.S. and Iraqi forces halted attacks in and around the Shiite holy
city of Najaf to allow for political talks intended to end an insurgency
by followers of Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, according to a statement
the U.S.- led military occupation e-mailed from Baghdad.

British
journalist freed by Sadr
--A British journalist kidnapped by gunmen in the Iraqi city of Basra
was freed yesterday after followers of the radical Shiite leader Moqtada
al-Sadr called for his release. A cleric sitting next to the journalist
and identified as Sheikh Asad explained: "We apologise for what happened
to you. This is not our tradition, not our rules. "Islam
differentiates greatly between a person who invades us and a person
who helps us."

Cleric
calls for reporter's release
--A spokesman for Iraq's Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr has called on
the militants who last night seized Sunday Telegraph journalist James
Brandon at gunpoint to release him.

The
real reasons Bush went to war
--WMD was the rationale for invading Iraq. But what was really driving
the US were fears over oil and the future of the dollar. --by John Chapman
"There were only two credible reasons for invading Iraq: control
over oil and preservation of the dollar as the world's reserve currency.
Yet the government has kept silent on these factors, instead treating
us to the intriguing distractions of the Hutton and Butler reports."

The
Post on WMDs: An Inside Story
--Prewar Articles Questioning Threat Often Didn't Make Front Page
--by Howard Kurtz "As violence continues in postwar Iraq and U.S.
forces have yet to discover any WMDs, some critics say the media, including
The Washington Post, failed the country by not reporting more skeptically
on President [sic] Bush's contentions during the run-up to war. An examination
of the paper's coverage, and interviews with more than a dozen of the
editors and reporters involved, shows that The Post published a number
of pieces challenging the White House, but rarely on the front page."

Feds
reschedule meeting after Berg's father complains
--The father of an American man beheaded in Iraq accused the Bush dictatorship
and his local congressman of trying to cancel a long-awaited meeting
that was supposed to answer questions surrounding his son's death. Within
hours of the complaint Thursday, federal officials said the meeting
was back on.

U.S.
Army, 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Distributors at War
--A new war of words broke out on Friday over whether the U.S. Army
is stonewalling efforts to book the anti-Bush documentary, "Fahrenheit
9/11," at military bases. The movie, made by Oscar-winning director
Michael Moore, has grossed over $113 million at domestic box offices
and such a blockbuster would be routinely, and quickly, ordered up by
the military.

Oil
price tops $US46.50
--World oil prices tore to all-time highs today as a hurricane thundered
near oil platforms, oil-rich Venezuela faced a strike risk and fighting
raged in Iraq. New York's benchmark light sweet crude for delivery in
September leapt $US1.08 ($1.52) to a record high settlement of $US46.58
($65.85) a barrel.

Bush
'to move 100,000 troops' --The United States is expected to
announce today that it is pulling 100,000 troops out of Europe and Asia,
according to a British newspaper report. The Financial Times
said the withdrawals - the largest restructuring of Washington's military
presence abroad since World War II - would be announced in a speech
by US Dictator George W. Bush.

Bush
to Announce US Troop Overseas Repositioning Monday -Faux --George
W. Bush will announce Monday a major shift in the U.S. military global
posture, involving the repositioning tens of thousands of troops, Faux
News reported Friday. Some troops in Asia will be repositioned and some
will be brought back to the U.S., according to the report.

US
questions Japan's pacifism
--US Secretary of State Colin Powell says Japan must consider revising
its pacifist constitution if it wants a permanent UN Security Council
seat. Article Nine of the constitution, drawn up under US post-war occupation,
renounces the use of force in disputes.

Four
Guantanamo Prisoners Ruled 'Enemy Combatants'
--The U.S. military has ruled that four terror war suspects jailed in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are legitimate "enemy
combatants" after completing a fledgling [phony] appeals
process that will eventually review all 585 being held, the Pentagon
said on Friday.

Holy
Kangaroo Court, Batman!!Judge:
No deposing of Guantanamo official
--A federal judge in Washington Friday refused to let lawyers for
12 Kuwaiti detainees question the deputy commander of the U.S. base
in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Lawyers
unite to condemn US prison camp
--Twenty-eight leaders of the legal profession around the world have
together condemned the US for the continued detention of hundreds
of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. In an open letter, the heads of
bar and solicitors' organisations call on the Bush dictatorship to scrap
its "review panels" considering whether to release the men.

U.S.:
'No legal rights' for detainees --The Bush dictatorship is taking
a hard line on whether prisoners at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, have a right to lawyers to help them file lawsuits challenging
their detentions. In court papers filed during the past two weeks, the
Justice Department has insisted that the detainees have "no
legal rights," especially the right to counsel.

UK
court OKs torture evidence
--Controversial Ruling: A UK appeals court
says that evidence gathered through torture is admissible as long as
British officials were not directly involved (The Guardian)
British appeal court judges on Wednesday defied human rights campaigners
by ruling that British courts could use evidence extracted under torture,
as long as British agents were not complicit in the abuse [?!?]. In
a highly controversial judgment, the second highest court in the land
rejected the appeals of 10 men suspected of having links to international
terrorism and currently held without charge in what activists call "Britain's
Guantanamo Bay."

GOP
Senator: Ashcroft 'retaliated' against prosecutors--In
blunt, private letters, the Senate Finance Committee chairman told Attorney
General John Ashcroft he believes the Justice Department has retaliated
against prosecutors in a Detroit terror trial because they cooperated
with Congress. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has written Ashcroft
or his deputies at least three times to accuse department officials
of taking "hostile actions" and
"reprisals" against the trial prosecutors.

FBI
Warns Of Possible Terror Link To Storage Units --The FBI is
taking an interest in public storage facilities across Ohio, NBC 4 has
reported. Self-storage units have already been searched in Toledo, and
alerts have gone out in several cities, including Columbus.

Group
Sues Over NYC Rally Permit Denial
--An anti-war group and an organization of Arab-Americans filed a lawsuit
Friday challenging New York City's denial of a permit for a civil rights
rally in Central Park two days before the Repugnant Nazi Carnival.

Federal
Protective Service will "keep an eye" on MSG
--While NYPD and federal law enforcement will be clearly visible during
the Repugnant Nazi Carnival, there will also be another security
force keeping watch behind the scene. The Federal Protective Service
will "keep an eye" on MSG and federal buildings in the city. The group
guards more than 9,500 federal buildings nationwide.

Undercover
Cops Have Infiltrated Anti-RNC Groups: Police Sources
--The 35-page booklet, "Legal guidelines for the Republican National
Convention," was printed to let cops know what to expect [WHY *do*
that, folks???] when the protest groups that police generally [erroneously]
call anarchists roll into town the last week of August, police sources
say. Police sources say undercover cops have infiltrated at least some
of the groups they expect to cause 'trouble.' [The Repugnant Nazi
Carnival *is* the 'trouble!']

Rumsfeld
and Bush Failed Us on Sept. 11
--by Gail Sheehy "[Donald] Rumsfeld's testimony before the commission
last March was bizarre. Asked point-blank by Commissioner Jamie Gorelick
what he had done to protect the nation — or even the Pentagon — during
the 'summer of threat' preceding the attacks, Rumsfeld replied simply
that 'it was a law enforcement issue.' That obfuscation — was the
FBI expected to be out on the Beltway with shoulder-launched missiles?
— has been accepted at face value by the commission and media."

Bush
blew it the morning of 9/11
--by Bill Maher "John Kerry has waded into an issue... namely,
President [sic] Bush's sitting for seven minutes in a Florida classroom
after being told 'the country is under attack.' ...The fact that Bush
wasted 27 minutes that day - not only the seven minutes reading to kids
but 20 more at a photo op afterward - was, in my view, the most outrageous
thing a President [sic] has done since Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack
the Supreme Court. Watergate was outrageous but it still did not carry
the possibility of utter devastation, like a President[sic]'s freezing
at the very moment we needed his immediate focus on an attack on the
United States." [*See: The
obscure goat story of 9-11]

Goss's
Wish List --Bush's CIA nominee has
alarmed civil libertarians with a plan that would authorize the agency
to arrest U.S. citizens. Rep. Porter Goss, Dictator Bush’s
nominee to head the CIA, recently introduced legislation that would
give the president new authority to direct CIA agents to conduct law-enforcement
operations inside the United States—including arresting American
citizens. In language that until now has not gotten any public attention,
the Goss bill would also redefine the authority of the director of Central
Intelligence in such a way as to substantially alter—if not overturn—a
57-year-old ban on the CIA conducting operations inside the United States.

Gore
criticizes Bush's CIA director pick
--President Al Gore charged Thursday that Dictator Bush's nomination
of Republican Rep. Porter Goss to lead the CIA continues Bush's pattern
of using the Sept. 11 tragedy for political benefit. Gore called
a Goss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee since 1997, a "partisan
ally" of Bush who is "experienced in bitterly criticizing the Democratic
nominee on the subject of the war and on the subject of intelligence-gathering."

CIA
nominee called too partisan
--On Wednesday, the day after Dictator Bush nominated Goss as CIA director,
Democrats in Congress questioned whether Goss, the eight-term GOP congressman
from Sanibel, has become too partisan and politically tight with the
Bush regime to be an independent intelligence chief.

Fraud:
The Secrets of Bush's Payroll Records Revealed (The
AWOL project) "Summary --On February 10, 2004, the White House
released George W Bush’s quarterly payroll summaries for his last year
in the Texas Air National Guard, claiming that they proved that Bush
had 'fulfilled his duties' as a member of the US Armed Forces. However,
An examination of these records within the context of laws and policies
of that time reveals that at least half (and as much as two thirds)
of the pay and 'points' credited toward Bush’s mandatory monthly training
were fraudulent. When one deducts these
fraudulent points from Bush’s records, Bush does not achieve the minimum
number of points under the White House’s own (erroneous) criteria."

Bush
Wants to Be Your Shrink
--Now Bush wants to test every American for mental illness--including
you! And guess who will create the tests? --by Jordanne Graham "Next
month, President [sic] Bush plans to unveil a broad new mental health
plan called the 'New Freedom Initiative.' ...The New Freedom Initiative
proposes to screen every American, including you, for mental illness.
To this end, the president [sic] established a New Freedom Commission
on Mental Health, to study the nation’s mental health delivery service
and make a report. It’s interesting to note that many
on the staff appointed to the Commission have served on the advisory
boards of some of the nation’s largest drug companies...
Eli Lilly manufactures olanzapine. This is one of the drugs recommended
in the New Freedom plan. Lilly has numerous ties to the Bush administration
according to the British Medical Journal... Eighty-two percent
of Lilly's $1.6 million in political contributions in 2000 went to Bush
and the Republican Party." [A must
read and must act!! Contact your your congressional
representatives !!]

Bush
Tax Cuts Heavily Favor Rich, CBO Says -Reports
--Dictator Bush's tax cuts have transferred the federal tax burden
from the richest Americans to middle-class families, with one-third
of them benefiting people with the top 1 percent of income, according
to a government report cited in newspapers on Friday.

Study:
Tax Burden Shifts to Middle Class
--Dictator Bush's tax cuts since 2001 have shifted more of the tax burden
from the nation's rich to middle-class families, according to a study
released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office.

Keyes
Wants to End Election of Senators
--Reichwing nutball Alan Keyes said Friday he would like to end the
system under which the people elect U.S. senators and return to
pre-1913 practice in which senators were chosen by state legislatures.

Kerry
Takes Lead Over Bush in Florida
--Democrat John Kerry has taken a slight lead over Dictator Bush in
Florida — the essential swing state in the 2000 election, according
to a poll out Thursday.

Hecklers
Banned At Bush Rallies[But Bush Brownshirts are encouraged
to attack Kerry rallies] There was a full-throated roar of support
for Dictator Bush at a New Mexico rally -- adoring crowds and a beaming
candidate -- and it's no accident, reports CBS News. The event tickets
went to busloads of pre-screened party faithful
-- who poured in hours in advance -- to be greeted and organized by
Bush campaign staffers. This tight control means that hecklers like
those who greeted Kerry and Edwards [Bush's Brownshirts] in Missouri
are almost never seen at Bush events.

Anti-Kerry
group sees rise in donations after airing ads
--A group of Vietnam veterans [Scaife-funded, lying Reichwing whackjobs]
that is challenging Sen. John Kerry's claims of heroic war service says
it received a flood of donations in recent days after advertising its
contentions on television in three states.

Wrong
Time for an E-Vote Glitch --It was simultaneously an uh-oh moment
and an ah-ha moment. When Sequoia Voting Systems demonstrated its new
paper-trail electronic voting system for state Senate staffers in California
last week, the company representative got a surprise when the paper
trail failed to record votes that testers cast on the machine.

Floridians
still unsure all votes will count --A new poll showed John Kerry
widening his lead over Dictator Bush in Florida, while voters expressed
worries about voting machines and the election process. Nearly one-third
of Florida voters have ''deep concerns'' about the new touch-screen
'voting' machines and the state's elections process as a whole, according
to a new survey that also shows negative feelings about Dictator
Bush are cresting to an all-time high.

Standing
up to a right-wing witch hunt
--by Nancy Russell The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk: Why I Refused to
Testify Against the Clintons & What I Learned in Jail, by Susan
McDougal with Pat Harris. Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York. 2003.
Paperback Edition 2004. "McDougal’s life story tells a great deal
about the tenacity and courage of a rather ordinary American to speak
the truth, defy authority and defend democratic rights, at great personal
cost... The events in The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk were a part
of the nascent coup d’état of the Clinton impeachment, a political conspiracy
consummated in the stolen election of 2000 and Bush’s installation as
president."

No
Sex, Please, We're Republicans --Right Now, To Be Sexually
Attuned And Kinky Is To Be Part Of The Anti-Bush Revolution. Vive la
résistance! --by Mark Morford "Imagine if much of BushCo's
current disease of bogus evangelical machismo was drained away like
pus from a wound and the nation was not led by a bunch of snickering
myopic war hawks and corporate CEOs, each so obviously sexually repressed
and so clearly in need of [sex] that they absolutely must lead
us into war to compensate for not having sex since the Nixon administration."

*****

Journalist
shot, abducted
--A British journalist was abducted from his hotel in the southern city
of Basra, Iraqi police said today. Hotel owner Mohammed Uglah said gunmen
found the man, reportedly a journalist for The Sunday Telegraph
of London, and shot him twice in the leg before taking him away.

Shias
call for split from Baghdad
--Shia leaders in southern Iraq yesterday called for a breakaway movement
from the central government in Baghdad to protest against the heavy-handed
approach to the insurgency.

Rift
grows as Iranians caught fighting for Sadr --Security officials
in Baghdad were last night urgently investigating the background of
30 Iranians who were caught fighting for a rebel Shia cleric in Iraq,
amid mounting concern over the involvement of the Tehran regime in the
uprising.

Najaf's
No. 2 Resigns In Protest At US 'Terrorist' Acts --The deputy
governor of the restive Iraqi city of An-Najaf resigned on Thursday,
August 12, in protest at the 'terrorist'
acts of the US occupation forces as deadly raids into the holy city
has left hundreds of Shiite fighters and civilians killed.

Al-Sadr
wounded in US Najaf blitz
--Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was wounded in clashes, his
spokesman said today. Al-Sadr is said to be holed up in Najaf's sacred
compound housing the Imam Ali shrine, surrounded by his followers.

Maintain
holy war, hurt Sadr urges --Radical Iraqi Shiite Muslim militia
leader Moqtada Sadr called on his supporters to continue their "holy
war" even if he died a martyr, shortly after being wounded, a spokesman
said today.

Inside
the shrine, wounded return from bloody battle
--As the day wore on, more and more injured young men wrapped in bandages
were being carried across the sun-baked tiles of the courtyard in the
Imam Ali shrine. In one alcove in the turquoise-tiled wall was a small
makeshift hospital with two metal beds and a stack of drugs and bandages...

World's
Shiites Warn That U.S. Is Treading on Sensitive Ground
--With U.S. military officials saying they have received permission
from Najaf's governor to strike the mosque if necessary, religious and
political leaders from Iran to Los Angeles are voicing grave warnings
that an American assault on the shrine could be catastrophic to the
U.S. image in Iraq and the Muslim world.

Najaf
pounded; oil prices on record high
--US warplanes pounded this Iraqi holy city on Thursday in a massive
assault aimed at crushing a Shia Muslim uprising, as the specter of
attacks on the country's petroleum infrastructure sent world oil prices
to record highs for the second time in 48 hours. Jets roared overhead
as massive explosions and tank and machine-gun fire boomed through the
city and smoke engulfed its historic centre, home to the Imam Ali shrine,
revered by Shias the world over.

US
bombs Najaf as civilians urged to leave
--American warplanes began bombarding insurgent positions in Najaf last
night and troops used loudspeakers to urge civilians to leave the area
after the sixth successive day of fighting between US Marines and Shia
gunmen.

Tareq
Aziz Seeks Lawyers to Defend Him on Mass Murder Charges --Former
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz has authorized his family to
hire lawyers to defend him against two capital charges of mass murder,
his son Ziad said yesterday. The letter dated July 1, the same day Aziz
was hauled into the dock in Baghdad along with 10 other former henchmen
of Saddam Hussein, did not reach his family in the Jordanian capital
until last Thursday after being vetted by US military censors.

Pentagon
says 43% of Halliburton's Iraq expenses are not verifiable --Halliburton
cannot justify why it billed the Pentagon for $1.8
billion of work in Iraq and Kuwait, the Wall Street Journalreported
today, citing a new Pentagon report. Pentagon accountants said they
are uncertain as to why Halliburton's KBR unit billed the Pentagon $1.8
billion for the expenses, which represent 43 percent of the $4.18 billion
the company billed the Pentagon for logistics work in the Middle East,
the Journal said.

Washington
Post apologises for underplaying WMD scepticism
--The Washington Post said yesterday it had underplayed scepticism of
the White House's claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction,
becoming the latest US newspaper to publish a mea culpa of its prewar
coverage. In a 3,000-word front-page article the newspaper said it "did
not pay enough attention to voices raising questions about the war".

Bush
ready to take 'rap' over Iraq
--US Dictator George W. Bush was ready to take "the rap" for the Iraq
war if the US people decide to vote against him in the November election,
he said today. But he insisted in an interview with CNN television that
he believed the decision to invade Iraq was the right one and that he
would win the election battle against Democratic rival John Kerry in
which Iraq is a key issue.

Times
'Reporter' Is Subpoenaed in Leak Case--A 'reporter' for The
New York Times [GOP Media Whore],
Judith Miller, was subpoenaed yesterday by a Washington grand jury investigating
the disclosure of the identity of a C.I.A. undercover officer to the
syndicated columnist Robert Novak and other journalists. The subpoena
to Ms. Miller was only the most recent of a series issued to journalists
in a politically sensitive inquiry that has on several occasions led
investigators to question White House officials.

The
island idyll and the US occupation
--For six decades, the inhabitants of Okinawa have lived alongside thousands
of US troops. But new plans for military expansion have provoked furious
resistance.

Venezuela
Floridated --Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote
in Caracas this Sunday? --by Greg Palast "OUR President [sic]
has decided that THEIR president has to go... Justice offered up to
$67 million of our taxpayer money
to ChoicePoint in a no-bid deal
for computer profiles with private information on every citizen of half
a dozen nations. The choice of citizens to spy on caught my eye. While
the September 11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and
the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's
menu offered records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans
and Argentines. How odd."

Bali
warnings not passed on
--The Federal Government failed to properly warn Australians about the
risk from terrorist bombers in Bali, a Senate report has found. It says
there was a "failure of intelligence" but clears spy agencies including
ASIO of wrongdoing.

Police
to get wider arrest powers
(UK) Alarm at plan to use community support officers to tackle beggars,
drinking and carrying weapons --A major
extension to the powers of police community support officers,
dealing with beggars and underage drinkers and searching suspects for
weapons, forms part of the police reform proposals published by the
home secretary, David Blunkett, yesterday. The shakeup of police
powers also includes plans to sweep away the confusing legal patchwork
of arrestable and non-arrestable offences.

Police
to have power to arrest litterbugs
--Police will be given tough new powers - including the right to arrest
anyone committing an offence and to take fingerprints
in the street - under proposals published yesterday by David
Blunkett, the Home Secretary.

Report
Says U.S. Is Draining Wetlands
--Groups Cite Year-Old Policy --The Bush regime has allowed developers
to drain thousands of acres of wetlands
under a policy adopted last year, according to a report issued yesterday
by four environmental groups.

Absentee
ballot mailed to voters includes obsolete instructions --About
22,000 Palm Beach County voters received absentee ballots this week
with outdated instructions telling them their signatures must be witnessed
or their votes won't count. A Florida
law that took effect July 1 eliminates the requirement that a witness
sign an absentee voter's ballot. Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore
[Le-GOP-Whore] said she
and other elections employees didn't notice[?!? OMG]
that a paragraph of instructions on the return envelope for the ballot
included a sentence stating that "failure to sign this certificate and
have my signature property (sic) witnessed will invalidate my ballot."

Top
Massachusetts Bush donor contributed to Nader
--Hopkinton computer tycoon Richard Egan, the Bush campaign's finance
chairman in John Kerry's home state, has personally contributed the
maximum amount allowed by law -- $2,000
-- to Nader's presidential campaign. Egan's son John and daughter in
law have each also "maxed out," bringing the family's total to $6,000.
Bush backers are hoping Nader will siphon enough
votes from Kerry to tip the election to Dictator Bush.

N.J.
Governor Resigns, Admits Gay Affair
--Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation Thursday and acknowledged
that he had an extramarital affair with another man. "My truth is that
I am a gay American," he said. The Democrat said his resignation would
be effective Nov. 15. Senate President Richard J. Codey, a Democrat,
will become acting governor and serve out the remainder of McGreevey's
term, which ends in early 2006.

Court
annuls San Francisco gay marriages --The California Supreme
Court voided all same-sex marriages sanctioned by San Francisco this
year, ruling Thursday that the
mayor overstepped his authority by issuing the couples licenses.

400,000
ordered to evacuate in Florida
--Hundreds of thousands of people along the Florida Gulf Coast began
leaving for higher ground as forecasters warned that Hurricane Charley
will likely strengthen to major hurricane status by the time it comes
ashore near Tampa Bay on Friday evening. "My principal message here
today is to urge people who have not experienced a hurricane to take
this very, very seriously," said Gov. Jeb Bush, who ordered a state
of emergency and put National Guard troops on stand-by.

*****

Evidence
gained by torture allowed by British judges
--From Lord Justice Laws' judgement: 'I am quite unable to see that
any ... principle prohibits the Secretary of State from relying ...
on evidence ... which has or may have been obtained by torture by agencies
of other states over which he has no powers of direction' --The
use of torture to obtain evidence against suspected 'terrorists' was
endorsed yesterday by the Court of Appeal in a ruling that
has brought Britain into conflict with international human rights campaigners.

Terror
suspects lose detention challenge
--Ten suspected terrorists detained in the UK without charge or trial
today lost a Court of Appeal challenge to their
internment. Most of the foreign nationals at the centre of
the ruling in London have been held in prisons since 2001.

Shell
advert seeks 'our man in Iraq'
--Oil majors, including Shell and BP, are moving closer to establishing
a long-term presence in Iraq, source of the world's second-largest
oil reserves, it emerged yesterday. Shell, which has been forced to
downgrade its proven oil and gas reserves by almost a quarter this year,
has appointed a Dubai-based exploration and production executive to
act as its "country chairman" for Iraq.

Crude
Oil Jumps to Record After Iraq Cuts Shipments to Tankers
Aug. 9 --Crude oil rose to a record $44.97 a barrel after Iraq cut shipments
to tankers in the Persian Gulf because of warnings of possible attacks
on petroleum-industry infrastructure... Deutsche Bank's oil strategist
Adam Sieminski said in a note today that oil prices may temporarily
rally "toward $100'' if an accident,
disaster or sabotage cuts supplies from two major oil- producing countries
at the same time.

Milestone
of 1,000th U.S. Death in Iraq Looms for Bush
--The United States faces a painful moment probably next month when
its military deaths in Iraq are expected to surpass 1,000. It will also
be a crucial moment for Dictator Bush, who faces a presidential campaign
in which Iraq is a central issue.

Blair
Crisis of Confidence
--Tony Blair is facing the threat of a "no confidence" vote next month
- accused of destroying trust in Labour.

Heavy
bombing leaves 56 dead in Kut --Heavy overnight US bombardment
of Kut has killed 56 people and wounded more than 110, one day after
clashes between police and Shi'ite Muslim militiamen in the southern
Iraqi city, a medic said. "American planes started bombing the al-Shakia
district, in southern Kut after 3:00am (0900 AEST)," said Kut hospital
director, Khader Fadal Arar.

U.S.
launches offensive in Najaf
--More than 50 Iraqis killed in clashes across country --The U.S. military
Thursday launched a major offensive against Iraqi militants loyal to
renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf, south of Baghdad.

Young
Londoners proud to be part of Sadr's army
--They said they wanted to come and fight as soon as Iraq was invaded
last year. "They were wrong to come to our country. They said they came
for chemical weapons and they didn't get permission from the United
Nations so they attacked Iraq for no reason,"
Abu Turab said. ..."[US Dictator George] Bush said 'you are either
with us or against us'," Abu Haqid added. "We had to decide either
to be with him or against him, and we are against
him, definitely."

Britons
who take up arms for rebel cleric face life imprisonment, government
warns
Britons who travel to Iraq to fight on behalf of rebel Shia cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr could face life imprisonment for treason if arrested, the Home
Office warned yesterday. The threat of legal action follows the revelation
in The Guardian yesterday that at least two young men from London
are among insurgents battling American troops near the centre of
the holy city of Najaf.

Heat
of Battle Takes Toll on U.S. Forces
--Despite military efforts, troops are unable to avoid combat during
summer. Health woes have sidelined some as temperatures near 130...
medics fear that casualties will increase.

Army
Turns to Private Guards
--The military is criticized for risking security at bases and for
a process that awarded $1 billion in contracts
without competitive bidding. Stretched thin by troop deployments
in Iraq and Afghanistan and security needs at home, the Army has resorted
to hiring private security guards to help protect dozens of American
military bases.

Iraq
'ended nuclear aims in 1991'
--The head of Iraq's nuclear programme under Saddam Hussein has said
Iraq destroyed its nuclear weapons programme in 1991 and never restarted
it.

Holy
irony of ironies, Batman!!Terrorists
Akin to 'Notorious Nazi Groups,' Says Wolfowitz --The Defense
Department's No. 2 official compared radical Islamic 'terrorists' [resistance
fighters] to Adolf Hitler's dispensers of death –- the dreaded "Schutzstaffel,"
or SS -- during Aug. 10 testimony on Capitol Hill. [Wolf-o-shitz
should know *all about* 'Schutzstaffel' or SS --since his neo-con policies
are right out the handbook of the SS. Why doesn't Wolf-o-shitz talk
about the children who were raped at Abu Ghraib? Oh, that's right. We're
not even sure the SS carried out that tactic, but we know the Bush dictatorship
did. See: U.S.
Government, Media Silent on Torture of Detained Iraqi Kids.]

Iraqi
south threatens secession
--Basra Deputy Governor Salam Uda al-Maliki has said he is to announce
the separation of some Iraqi southern governorates from the central
Baghdad government.

Iran
Says White House Adviser 'Insults' World
--Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi says U.S. national security
adviser [and Reichwing whackjob] Condoleezza Rice is insulting the world
with her insistence that Tehran may be violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty. Speaking on state radio today, Kharrazi said Rice presumes
to speak for the international community when giving her personal opinions
of Iran's nuclear activities.

Rumsfeld
In Azerbaijan For Talks
[about oil?] --US Defense Secretary [W-ar
criminal] Donald Rumsfeld arrived here Wednesday for talks with leaders
of Azerbaijan, the only predominantly Muslim country with troops in
Iraq.

EU
may vote for Israel sanctions
--The European Union is likely to support a United Nations General Assembly
resolution calling for sanctions against Israel over the security fence
if there is not a dramatic change in the diplomatic situation before
mid-September, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said Wednesday.

US
government trolling for more soldiers-as-guinea pigs to enhance pharmaceutical
companies' coffers:Troops'
Plasma Needed to Develop New Anthrax 'Defense' --A new program
starting today to develop a new 'defense' against [Bush-created]
anthrax will depend on servicemembers' donated plasma to be most effective.
The greatest number of the 1.2 million people vaccinated 'against' anthrax
– a deadly disease that can be used in biological warfare – is in the
military [where the guinea pigs cannot sue].

White
House Has Some Terror Experts Worried--Officials
here and overseas say U.S. alerts and release of information could hinder
broader investigations. Heightened terror alerts and high-profile
arrests of suspected Islamic extremists have international security
experts and officials concerned that the Bush regime's actions could
jeopardize investigations into the Al CIA-duh
network. [That is their goal. Karl Rove needs Bush-bin Laden ready
to *help* with the November elections.]

Filmmaker
Moore Quotes Goss on Lack of CIA Credentials
--U.S. Congressman Porter Goss, Dictator Bush's nominee for CIA director,
could be his own worst enemy when it comes to making the case that he
deserves to lead the U.S. intelligence agency. "I
couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified," the
Florida Republican told documentary-maker Michael Moore's production
company during the filming of "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Central
Intelligence Agency
(transcript) Adm. Stansfield Turner: "This is Stansfield Turner.
Let me lay out my basic thoughts on the nomination of Porter Goss to
be Director of Central Intelligence: 1. This
is an irresponsible act on the part of the President [sic] because it
is motivated by partisan political, electoral purposes...
2. Porter Goss has many qualifications for being DCI. n He has one overriding
disqualification. That is that he is a very partisan, political person...
3. This administration has already jeopardized the public's view
of the credibility of our intelligence by its misuse of intelligence
on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."

U.S.
to Give Border Patrol New Powers to Deport Illegal Aliens
--Citing concerns about terrorists crossing the nation's land borders,
the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it planned
to give border patrol agents sweeping new powers
to deport illegal aliens from the frontiers abutting Mexico and Canada
without providing the aliens the opportunity to make their case before
an immigration judge.

Is
an "August Surprise" Brewing in America?
--Why does Karl Rove, President [sic] Bush’s political advisor, not
want you to know what is happening on the Arizona border? --by Margie
Burns "With media attention focused on the elections, the newspaper
item below, oddly, looks like good timing. Could there be an 'August
surprise' in the making? The report last week from the small Tombstone
Tumbleweed newspaper is jarring. A 'flood of middle-eastern males' has
been caught entering the country illegally east of Douglas, Arizona,
according to the paper, and this recent 'flood' is actually part of
an increasing trend of 'OTMs' ('other than Mexicans') entering the country
illegally somewhere east of the Chiricahua Mountains."

Reichwinger Joseph DiGenova
was discussing ('Nightline') postponing elections,
due to the 'assassination of one or both of the candidates'...
[Yeah, like Bush bin Laden is actually going to assassinate *himself,*
NOT! No, they would assassinate the Democrat(s), as they were already
intimidated in 2001 with anthrax from Fort Deitrick.] John Fortier was
discussing what should happen if truck bombs hit polling places... and
what to do if there were terrorist threats to
polling places, etc.. [Is the Bush bin Laden team prepping us
to accept the 'Wellstoning' of John Edwards? Edwards needs to avoid
planes with no black boxes from now until November 2.]

Jeb
Bush declares state of emergency ahead of storms --Governor
Jeb Bush has declared a state of emergency ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie
and Hurricane Charley bearing down on Florida. Update, 18:32EDT:
(MSNBC) Jeb Bush has activated the National Guard.
[Why?]

Senator
hires former Clinton lawyer for leak probe
--A Washington attorney who represented President Clinton at his impeachment
trial and has a long association with Democrats will defend Sen. Richard
Shelby, R-Alabama, against possible ethics charges that he leaked classified
information to the media.

US
budget deficit soars in July
--The US government ran a larger-than-expected budget deficit in July,
official figures show. The deficit for the month was $69.16bn (£37.8bn), based on revenues of $134.42bn and
spending of $203.58bn, the US Treasury department reported.

Bush:
Sales tax in, income tax out?
--Bush says replacing current system with sales tax is an idea we should
'explore seriously.' Dictator Bush said Tuesday that abolishing the
U.S. income tax system and replacing it with a national sales tax was
an idea worth considering.

Nader
must play by rules like everyone else
(delcotimes.com, DE) "Ralph Nader sure has come a long way. The
one-time consumer advocate, renowned for fighting government corruption
and sticking up for the little guy, now stands accused of cheating some
of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable citizens and trying to perpetrate
a huge fraud on the state’s electorate... If Nader or his lackeys played
fast and loose with Pennsylvania election law, they deserve to be
thrown off the ballot. The Bush and Kerry campaigns operated by
the rules. Is there to be a different standard for St. Ralph?"

Mad
moggy storms cockpit
--A Belgian airliner bound for Vienna had to turn back to Brussels 20
minutes into the flight yesterday after an escaped pet cat stormed the
cockpit and attacked the co-pilot. The cat, a tom named Gin with no
known links to al-Qa'ida, was "very aggressive", SN Brussels Airlines
spokesman Geert Sciot said...

The
daily newsletter is compiled and edited by Lori Price.

*****

Michael
Rectenwald responds to a Freeper
who exclaims, 'Gore lost and you need to get over it'
"Bush is doing a 'wonderful job' wrecking the US economy, invading
countries illegally, destroying the Iraqi economy, alienating the world
and creating more anti-US terrorists than have ever existed."

Cryptic
Comedy "I'm Gonna Kill the President!" to Play Somewhere in NYC,
Aug. 17-Sept. 4 By Ernio Hernandez 20 Jul 2004 Assassins may have closed
on Broadway, but another show is taking aim at the leader of the free
world in the new guerilla comedy "I'm Gonna
Kill the President!" A Federal Offense. Performances
begin at 10 PM at an undisclosed Manhattan location, running Aug. 17-Sept.
4 — including the dates of the Republican National
Convention.

Pentagon
plan for global anti-terror army
--The Pentagon has urged Congress to authorise a $700
million package designed to build a global anti[pro]-terrorist
network of friendly militias. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz,
a key architect of the Iraq war, told the House Armed Services Committee
the money would be used "for training and equipping local security
forces - not just armies - to counter terrorism and insurgencies".

Blair
faces vote of no-confidence over war
--Labour activists are circulating a resolution of no confidence in
Tony Blair for next month's annual party conference because of a loss
of trust in him over the war over Iraq.

Iraq
on a knife-edge
--The new Iraq was on a knife-edge last night as violence and political
instability confronted the regime of Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime
Minister.

Occupation
HQ attacked in central Baghdad
--Rocket-propelled grenades and mortars have hit the headquarters of
US-led occupation forces in Baghdad. Reporting from the eastern al-Rustamiya
district, Aljazeera sources said the attack on Tuesday was carried out
at the same time as a similar raid on the Ministry of Culture.

US
forces pound Iraqi militia
--US forces pounded Shi'ite militia from the air and ground in the holy
Iraqi city of Najaf, and used loudspeakers to urge the entrenched fighters
to lay down their weapons.

U.S.
battles militia in cemetery --U.S. troops and insurgents clashed
Tuesday in a sprawling cemetery in the holy city of Najaf, as American
forces drove through the city’s streets calling on militants to give
up their arms.

Roadside
bomb injures two in Iraq
--A roadside bomb went off early today as a US military vehicle drove
by a street in central Baghdad, slightly injuring two soldiers.

U.S.
Government, Media Silent on Torture of Detained Iraqi Kids
--Just as the US-led forces refused to release thousands of adult prisoners
after the June 28 handover of partial sovereignty to Iraq, US and UK
authorities continue to incarcerate children. The Pentagon says around
60 teens, "primarily aged 16 and 17," are still being detained, though
unnamed sources at the Pentagon and US Central Command (CentCom) said
some prisoners are as young as 14 years old, according to Scotland’s
Sunday Herald.

Diplomacy
sidelined as US targets Iran
--The US charge sheet against Iran is lengthening almost by the day,
presaging destabilising confrontations this
autumn and maybe a pre-election October surprise. The US
will ask a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency on September
13 to declare Iran in breach of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty,
a prelude to seeking punitive UN sanctions.

'US
can't send Iran case to UN'
--Iran said yesterday that Washington had no grounds to send its nuclear
case to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Foreign Minister
Kamal Kharrazi said, "Iran has not committed any violations, and whatever
Iran has done is in accordance with its international obligations."

'X'
On Israeli Guns.. For Each Palestinian Killed
--Some trigger-happy Israeli occupation soldiers engrave an (X) mark
on their personal guns or sniper pistols each time they kill a Palestinian,
according to Israeli press reports Tuesday, August 10.

Plame
Leak Case Could End in Supreme Court Standoff
--The recent pressure on reporters to reveal sources in the Valerie
Plame investigation could end in a U.S Supreme Court standoff, according
to two leading First Amendment attorneys, one of whom fears several
leading Washington reporters could wind up in jail before it's over.

Leak
allowed al-Qaeda suspects to escape --The disclosure
to reporters of the arrest of an al-CIA-duh
computer expert allowed several wanted suspects from Osama bin Laden's
terror network to escape, government and security officials said
Tuesday.

From
one blunder to the next
--by Jim Lobe "...[A] three-year war against al-Qaeda has suddenly
turned sour with reports that the White House prematurely exposed the
identity of a key source whose contacts and communication with the terrorist
group's operational masterminds had yet to be fully exploited. And to
compound the United States' embarrassment, Pakistan has angrily protested
to Washington over a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation
involving a fake plot to kill Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations,
describing it as 'a bizarre mission'."

Bin
Laden hints major assassination
--U.S. intelligence officials say a high-profile political assassination,
triggered by the public release of a new message from Osama bin Laden,
will lead off the next major al Qaeda terrorist attack, The Washington
Times has learned. [Is this the phony threat that will trigger a
Bush-Laden shut down of New York City, in order to stop the protests
at the Repugnant Nazi Carnival?]

NYC
Denies Anti-War Group's Parks Permit
--City officials on Tuesday denied a second application from anti-war
activists who want to demonstrate in Central Park on the eve of the
Repugnant Nazi Carnival, likely sending the matter to court.

No-Fly
List Raises Civil-Liberty Concerns --The Sept. 11 Commission
wants the government to expand the no-fly list airlines now check
to keep suspected terrorists off planes, consolidating as many as 12
secret lists maintained by different intelligence agencies.
That worries the American Civil Liberties Union, which has already sued
the government, saying the airlines' effort to keep 'terror' suspects
and other dangerous people off planes ensnares innocent passengers and
subjects them to unnecessary searches and delays.

Big
Business Becoming Big Brother
--The government is increasingly using corporations to do its surveillance
work, allowing it to get around restrictions that protect the privacy
and civil liberties of Americans, according to a report released Monday
by the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization that works to
protect civil liberties.

Rep.
Goss Nominated to Head CIA; Choice Criticized
--Dictator Bush on Tuesday nominated House intelligence chief Porter
Goss to head the CIA and quickly encountered skepticism the appointment
could salvage an intelligence community battered by failures over Iraq
and Sept. 11, 2001. Some Democrats questioned whether Goss, a Republican
congressman from the key election battleground of Florida, was too
partisan for the position and promised tough questions in the U.S. Senate,
which must confirm his nomination.

Goss
to step down as House Intel chairman --Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla.,
nominated by Dictator Bush Tuesday to be the new director of central
intelligence, is resigning as chairman of the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence, United Press International has learned.

Porter
Goss: Cheney Cat's Paw
--by Ray McGovern "With respect to the various investigations into
9/11, [Porter] Goss was thrust into the limelight by [Dick] Cheney,
who initially opposed any investigation at all... When folks started
talking about the need for a genuinely independent commission, though,
Cheney acquiesced in the establishment of the congressional joint committee
as the lesser evil and took reassurance from the fact that Goss could
be counted on to keep the lid on – and, when necessary, run rings around
co-chair Sen. Bob Graham, (D-Fla.)."

German
9/11 trial in doubt after US blocks witnesses
--The retrial of a Moroccan man convicted of involvement in the September
11 attacks appeared to be in doubt last night after the Bush dictatorship
refused to allow two key al-CIA-duh
suspects to give evidence.

GOP
gets scolded on recruitment--Naturalization
ceremonies in Jacksonville are to be relocated after complaints that
GOP activists registered new citizens as Republicans. The citizenship
ceremony in Jacksonville seemed to go off as usual, with a crowd of
nearly 200 people going home as new Americans. Just before the new citizens
left the June 29 event, an immigration official directing the swearing-in
urged the them to stop by a voter registration table -- a not uncommon
sight at naturalization ceremonies. But this table was unusual: Those
handing out forms were Republican volunteers -- and the party affiliation
box had been checked off ahead of time to make all of the new voters
members of the GOP.

The
Bushes' stain-free smears
--by Tom Teepen "So a TV ad is running in contested states, and
a companion book is due out soon and is being ballyhooed on the Drudge
Report Web site, claiming that Kerry's Vietnam service was all a sham...
The ad was bankrolled by major GOP contributors, many close to the Bush
family, and none of the veterans cited in the book served directly with
Kerry... [Senator John] McCain has denounced the ad as 'dishonest and
dishonorable.' He has called on Bush to disavow it, but the White House
has declined. And why shouldn't it? After all, the president[sic]'s
fingerprints are nowhere to be found."

Beyond
Loopy --by Jim Hightower "Having spent the past four years
crisscrossing America to uncover the real state of the union under King
George the W and his rabid band of Bushites, I have come to a disturbing
conclusion: THESE PEOPLE ARE NUTS!
We’re talking bullgoose-loopy, ideological freaks whose snorting rampages
pose a threat to us all and to all we hold dear. It’s not that they’re
a little to the right. No. They’re insane—zealots dedicated to implementing
their plutocratic, autocratic, antidemocratic, militaristic, and imperialistic
vision of America (and the world)—and it’s time we stopped beating around
the bush about it."

Patient
crowd gives Kerry star treatment --For the city of Flagstaff,
it was practically the second coming. Presidential nominee John Kerry
arrived to screaming crowds in downtown Flagstaff Sunday night, where
an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 local residents welcomed the candidate
looking to unseat Dictator Bush in November. "We're at 7,000 feet, and
we're getting close to heaven," Kerry told the cheering Flagstaff crowd.

Kerry
Says Bush Broke Nuclear Waste Vow --Democratic presidential
challenger John Kerry, making a play for a state that supported Dictator
Bush four years ago, accused Bush of breaking his word with a plan to
bury nuclear waste in Nevada.

Coal
Miners Lose Health Benefits
--Thousands of coal miners, some sick from black lung disease, will
lose their medical coverage under an order filed Monday by U.S. Bankruptcy
Judge William Howard.

August
29, the world says NO to the Bush Agenda!
- March
and Rally at the Republican National Convention, New York City,
Assemble at 10:00AM, Seventh Avenue @ 14th Street, march steps off at
noon